MADRID (Reuters) -Spain is no longer considering the option of buying U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets and is choosing between European-made Eurofighter and the so-called Future Combat Air System (FCAS), a defence ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The spokesperson was confirming an earlier report by El Pais newspaper that the government had shelved plans to buy the F-35, which is manufactured by U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.
Asked to comment on the matter, Lockheed Martin said in a statement: “Foreign military sales are government-to-government transactions, and this matter is best addressed by the U.S. or Spanish government.”
The government had earmarked 6.25 billion euros ($7.24 billion) in its 2023 budget to buy new fighter jets, El Pais said.
But the Spanish government’s plan to spend most of the additional 10.5 billion euros for defence this year in Europe made it impossible to acquire the U.S.-made fighter jets, the newspaper reported.
Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced plans earlier this year to increase spending on defence to meet the current NATO target of 2% of gross domestic product in 2025. However he has refused to raise spending to 5% in the longer run despite U.S. pressure on all NATO allies to do so.
Sanchez’s position was heavily criticized by U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to impose additional tariffs on the country’s goods.
The U.S. embassy in Madrid did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the F-35 issue.
Eurofighter is manufactured by Airbus, BAE systems and Leonardo, while FCAS is being developed by Dassault Aviation, Airbus and Indra Sistemas.
($1 = 0.8634 euros)
(Reporting by Inti LandauroEditing by Andrei Khalip and Gareth Jones)
