Latest news with #F-35A
Daily Record
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Record
Calls for SNP to drop nuclear opposition but party says Starmer is 'pandering' to Trump on defence
The Scottish Secretary said Scotland should reap the 'defence dividend' but the SNP's Westminster defence spokesperson said his party's stance on nuclear was in line with the Scottish population. In a week that began with the US launching strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, the world's most powerful nations have now turned their attention to their own defence. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the UK would buy 12 new F-35A fighter jets capable of transporting nuclear bombs while at the NATO summit in the Netherlands Donald Trump praised members for agreeing to spend five per cent of their GDP on defence. A newly-published National Security Strategy stated the UK has to 'actively prepare for the possibility of the UK coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario'. Politicians from across the spectrum have been debating what this preparation looks like and whether it should include nuclear weapons. Here the Sunday Mail speaks to Labour's Scottish Secretary Ian Murray and the SNP's defence spokesman Dave Doogan about their very different views on how to protect the nation from foreign threats. Scottish Secretary Ian Murray has called for the SNP to rethink its stance against nuclear weapons. The Labour MP for Edinburgh South changed his stance on nukes in recent months, having been a 'lifelong' opponent of the weapons previously. In February he was praised by disarmament campaigners for his support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, but a month later he said he was 'proud' that Scotland hosted Trident. Last week he re-stated his support of the deadly weapons and said 'It's really important when circumstances change for that to happen.' He made the comments the day before Starmer announced he was buying 12 new US-made fighter jets, which are capable of carrying conventional weapons as well as American nuclear bombs. Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Mail Murray said the First Minister and his party should review their opposition to nukes. He said: 'Any responsible government has to make sure they put their national security and the safety of their own people first. 'Scots only have to turn on their TVs and pick up their newspapers to read about the fact that there is a changing global instability. 'I do think the Scottish Government should readdress it. 'Defence is really important and the two key things that come from that defence posture are jobs and growth in Scotland.' Murray said the country played a 'disproportionate role' in Britain's defence and he wanted to exploit the 'dividend' that comes from that. He said: 'My views on nuclear weapons changed some time ago but they have been underlined and emphasised by the fact that the issue of nuclear weapons and deterrence have become a huge global stability issue. 'For the Scottish government to tell Rolls Royce, one of the most respected British institutions, that they will not contribute to them investing in a highly skilled welding academy in Glasgow tells the public that they don't care about jobs, growth and opportunities for the future. 'That is a huge part of the defence dividend we should be trying to capture. Places like Babcock and BAE systems are hiring foreign welders from the Philippines and South Africa to do the work local people should be doing. 'So yes their stance should change, not just on defensive nuclear but on civilian nuclear as well.' The SNP's Westminster defence spokesman accused Keir Starmer of pandering to Donald Trump to 'make him relevant' after agreeing to buy a dozen new fighter jets capable of transporting US nuclear weapons. Dave Doogan, MP for Angus and Perthshire Glens, said his party's stance on nuclear was in line with the Scottish population and said the UK Government was not being honest about the country's own nuclear capability. He said: ' The SNP's position on nuclear remains resolute insofar as we're against it. We believe we're firmly in step with the vast majority of civil society in Scotland on that point. 'Ian Murray, consistent with many other issues, is not in step with the majority of civil society in Scotland. 'I've spoken to armed forces professionals who deal with the nuclear deterrent and nobody talks about it in the triumphant way in which Westminster politicians of the two main parties do. 'They know keenly that nuclear weapons are an evil. They would see it as a necessary evil, I take a different view.' Doogan said the public were 'being taken for mugs' by Starmer following the announcement about the dozen F-35A jets and said the US would really be in control if it came to delivering nuclear attacks. He said: 'The announcement is an absolute disgrace. The Americans have instructed the United Kingdom to not buy 12 F-35B variants, which is the vertical takeoff model that the UK wanted, and swap them for 12 'A' variants that can't be operated off the UK's aircraft carriers. 'They have to operate off land so they can carry America's nuclear weapons for America, store them in the United kingdom and launch them in a way that America determines, without a debate or a manifesto commitment on any of this. 'People are being taken for mugs.' Doogan said the purchase will see the UK 'become an arms-length nuclear franchise for the United States' and said: 'No other nuclear power delivers another nuclear power's nuclear weapons. 'There are five nuclear sharing nations in Europe who have agreed that in time of war they will assist with United States nuclear weapons. None of those countries have massive nuclear weapons bills like the UK. 'Only the UK is lining up to deliver America's nuclear weapons for America while being a nuclear power. 'It is yet another example of the current Labour government falling at the feet of the Trump administration, begging for him to make them relevant.' He said the money spent on nuclear weapons in the UK was 'one of the reasons why the conventional armed forces are in the state that they are in.' He said: 'The SNP believe not that we should be disinvesting from nuclear weapons so that we can disinvest in defence - far from it. 'We could have a far more robust defence posture of conventional armed forces, that Scotland deserves, without the hundreds of millions that's getting spent on dreadnought-class submarines and weapons. 'We believe nuclear weapons are morally wrong and that the UK's possession is surplus to requirements that exist in a genuinely independent way within NATO. 'They certainly shouldn't be in Scotland's waters without a by your leave.'
Japan Today
a day ago
- Politics
- Japan Today
Kremlin says Estonia's readiness to host nuclear-capable NATO jets threatens Russia
FILE PHOTO: A general view shows the Kremlin on the bank of the Moskva River in central Moscow, Russia, May 7, 2025. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov/ File Photo The Kremlin said on Friday that Estonia's stated readiness to host NATO allies' U.S.-made F-35A stealth jets, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, posed a direct threat to Moscow. Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur told the Postimees news outlet on Thursday that Estonia - which borders Russia and is a rotating base for NATO jets tasked with protecting Baltic airspace - was ready to host nuclear-capable jets if necessary. "If some of them, regardless of their country of origin, have a dual-use capability to carry nuclear weapons it doesn't affect our position on hosting F-35s in any way," the outlet cited him as saying. "Of course we are ready to host our allies." Pevkur was speaking after Britain, a NATO member, announced it would buy at least 12 F-35A jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads and that they would join NATO's airborne nuclear mission. Asked about Pevkur's comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such a move would be an obvious threat to Russia. "Of course it would be an immediate danger," Peskov told a journalist from Russia's Life news outlet. He said the statement was one of many "absurd thoughts" voiced by politicians in the Baltic region, which comprises Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. "We have practically no relations with the Baltic republics because it is very difficult to make them worse," he said. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Air Force F-35 buy would be cut in half under Pentagon spending plan
The Air Force would cut its F-35A purchase for fiscal 2026 roughly in half under the White House's draft defense budget. The service typically buys about four dozen Joint Strike Fighters each year, with some years' purchases topping 60. But a budget document obtained by Defense News shows the service would procure 24 F-35s next year, for a cost of nearly $4 billion. That is less than the 44 F-35s, costing $4.8 billion, the Air Force is on track to buy this year, and the 51 jets worth $5.5 billion the service bought in 2024. And while the number of jets the Air Force plans to buy would drop by 45% between 2025 and 2026, the savings would lag far behind. The cost of the F-35 purchases in 2026 would drop less than 18% over the 2025 cost, suggesting economies of scale would suffer from the reduced buy. The slow emergence of budget documents and administration spending plans in this way is highly unusual, even for an administration in its first months. Proposed budgets for the upcoming fiscal year are often released formally sometime in the spring and accompanied by briefings explaining the spending plans. But President Donald Trump's administration has not rolled out its full budget proposal for fiscal 2026, though it has trickled out broad outlines of spending plans. The House Appropriations subcommittee on defense advanced Tuesday its own version of a Defense Department spending bill that looks closer to a typical F-35 purchasing plan. That bill would provide $4.5 billion for the Air Force to buy 42 F-35As, as well as another $1.9 billion for the Marine Corps to buy 13 short takeoff and vertical landing F-35Bs. Another $2 billion was included for the Navy and Marine Corps to buy the F-35C carrier variant. While the Air Force has sought to pare back some F-35 purchases in recent years, primarily due to dissatisfaction with delayed upgrades known as Technology Refresh 3, the apparent plan to slash purchases to this degree would be a surprise. Top Air Force leaders have stressed consistently that the F-35 is the centerpiece of its fighter fleet. Some have referred to it as a 'quarterback' that uses advanced data sharing capabilities to tie together multiple assets. The Air Force's fighter fleet is rapidly aging, and older F-15s and F-16s are retiring. Air Force leaders have often said the service needs to buy at least 72 fighters each year to modernize its aircraft and bring down the average age of its fleet. US Air Force warns of aging fighters, poor purchasing efforts Buying 24 F-35As, along with 21 F-15EX fighters also budgeted in the Pentagon's plan, would leave the Air Force far short of that goal in 2026. The Air Force's future budget plans, which it released last year, included proposals to buy 42 F-35As in 2026, 47 apiece in 2027 and 2028, and 48 in 2029. The service eventually wants to buy a total of 1,763 F-35As. Doug Birkey, executive director for the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, said in an interview that cutting F-35 purchases this severely would be disastrous to the Air Force and irrevocably set it further back in its effort to modernize its fighter fleet. 'There's no way the Air Force or the nation can afford to bring down the fighter buy rate,' Birkey told Defense News. 'The legacy [fighter] assets are rapidly failing due to age, and we need 72 fighters per year just to tread water ... We will never regain the time.' A reduction in F-35 purchases would also throw the supplier base for the jet into disarray, Birkey said, not just Lockheed Martin, but also the more than 1,900 other companies that feed its supply chain. Without consistent targets to work toward every year, the supplier base will get 'whiplashed around,' he said. 'Everyone says we need to rebuild the defense industrial base, but this is not how you do it,' Birkey said. 'The workforce, access to long-lead supply — everything that's required for maintaining the ability to produce [F-35s] and surge [when more production is necessary], you destroy it through cuts like this.' Birkey said the Pentagon is likely considering such drastic cuts due to rising expenses that are squeezing its budget, but he expects Congress will ultimately bring the F-35 buy rate back up to normal. Trump has spoken highly of the F-35 and its stealth capabilities in the past. Former Trump adviser Elon Musk has been a prominent skeptic of crewed fighters such as the F-35, calling them 'obsolete in the age of drones.' Musk has dramatically and publicly fallen out of favor with the administration in recent weeks amid his criticism of the president's signature spending bill. Lockheed Martin's stock dropped more than 6% after news broke Wednesday of the possible purchase cut, although the company has since pared back some of that loss. The Air Force did not respond to a request for comment.
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Putin's mouthpiece issues WW3 threat after promise over UK's nuke-capable jets
Vladimir Putin's top spokesman has reacted furiously after Estonia said it was open to hosting RAF warplanes with nuclear capability - while one Kremlin mouthpiece said the move would 'end badly' Russia has issued a new threat to NATO after one of Britain's allies said it was 'ready' to host RAF warplanes capable of carrying tactical nuclear bombs. In the security defence review unveiled this week by Keir Starmer, it was announced the RAF will be equipped with twelve new F-35A fifth-generation aircraft by 2030, which will be "available to fly NATO's nuclear mission in a crisis". Estonia's defence minister Hanno Pevkur said today that his country would "naturally" be prepared to host some of the jets - sparking a furious reaction from Vladimir Putin 's spokesman, who was asked by Russian media if such a move would be perceived as a threat to Moscow. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's top press secretary, said: "A direct one. Of course… a direct danger." Estonia is a NATO member and shares a 183-mile land border with Russia, and around 1,000 British troops are permanently based in the Baltic state. Peskov added: 'The leaders of the Baltic countries express a lot of absurd ideas. One can only express regret, that's all.' Russia's extensive propaganda operation has also honed in on the Estonian minister's comments, and even appeared to threaten the country with invasion. One presenter from Kremlin-linked Tsargrad TV warned: 'It's strange that Tallinn doesn't grasp the obvious. 'Such moves near Russia's borders end very badly. And there's no need to look far for an example — just look at where such 'games' have led Ukraine.' Pro-Kremlin military blogger Aleksei Zhivov warned an F‑35A deployment could trigger war, accusing Estonia and NATO of inciting Putin. He said: 'Given that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are located uncomfortably close to Russia's most important regions, this poses an existential threat to our country' 'This should be viewed appropriately — as part of Europe's preparations for a major war with Russia. At some point, the Baltics' task will be to provoke Russia into launching a military operation in the region.' Peskov was speaking in Belarus, a Russian ally which borders Baltic states Lithuania and Latvia, and also another NATO state Poland. Belarus has been supplied with nuclear weapons by Putin. A dozen new RAF F‑35A fighters capable of carrying US B61‑12 nuclear gravity bombs are scheduled to enter service by 2030 at RAF Marham in Norfolk - but there has been no suggestion that they would be based in Estonia. Britain's existing F-35 jets have previously been sent on short rotational deployments to Estonia for "NATO enhanced Vigilance Activity", but are not based there permanently. Suggesting today that he would be open to hosting newer versions of the planes with enhanced nuclear capability, Estonia's Hanno Pevkur said: 'F-35s have already been in Estonia, and will soon return as part of the rotational mission. 'If some of them, regardless of the country, also have dual-use nuclear weapons capability, this does not change our position on hosting the F-35. Of course, we are ready to host allies.'
Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Russia Reacts to NATO Neighbor Hosting Nuclear-Capable Jets
Russia said it would pose an "immediate danger" to Moscow if neighboring NATO ally Estonia hosts nuclear-capable jets. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave the reaction to Russian state media after Estonia's defense minister Hanno Pevkur said his country was ready to host F-35s again, as it had done before. "The F-35s have already been in Estonia and will soon return again in rotation. We are ready to continue to host allies on our territory, including those who use such platforms," Pevkur told Estonian radio. Pevkur's comments come as the U.K., another NATO ally, said it would purchase at least 12 nuclear-capable F-35A fighter jets. Sir Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, said his country "will make these aircraft able to bear nuclear weapons if necessary" and that the purchase was in "response to a growing nuclear threat". NATO allies have agreed to increase their defense spending target to 5 percent of GDP in response to a push by the Trump Administration. The increased spending is seen as needed to broaden the burden-sharing across the alliance and lessen its dependence on the U.S. Moreover, the increased spending is a response to heightened threats from Russia and China. This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow. Related Articles The Major Trump Question Left Unanswered at NATO SummitWas Donald Trump Mocked by Dutch Royalty? What We KnowNATO Member Expects F-35 Fighters in Trump DealWhite House Posts 'Daddy's Home' NATO Supercut 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
