After refusing Trump's request to give more money for defense, a NATO country is now renouncing American F-35 hunting planes
F-35 fifth hunt
Spain no longer takes into account the option to buy F-35 fighter jets in the US and will choose between the Eurofighter model made in Europe and the so-called Future Combat Air System (FCAS), also the product of a European consortium, a spokesman of the Spanish Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday.
The newspaper El Pais reported on Wednesday that the Government has given up the F-35 fighter aircraft purchasing plans, manufactured by the American Lockheed Martin aerospace giant.
The Madrid government had allocated 6.25 billion euros in its budget for 2023 for the purchase of new fighter jets. But the plan of the Spanish government to spend most of the additional 10.5 billion euros allocated this year for the defense of Europe makes it impossible to purchase fighter jets in the US, El Pais explained, according to news.ro.
The socialist prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, announced earlier this year's increase in defense expenses to achieve the current NATO objective of 2% of the gross domestic product, but later refused to increase the expenses to 5% in the long term, as required by the North Atlantic Alliance at the insistence of Washington.
Sanchez's position was strongly criticized by US President Donald Trump, who threatened to impose additional customs taxes on the goods in this country.
The Eurofighter plane is manufactured by Airbus, Bae Systems and Leonardo, while the FCAS is developed by Dassault Aviation, Airbus and Indra Sistemas.
