Latest news with #F-35s
Japan Today
19 hours 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
20 hours 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.
Miami Herald
a day 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.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kremlin says Estonia's readiness to host nuclear-capable NATO jets threatens Russia
MOSCOW (Reuters) -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.
Straits Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
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 MOSCOW - 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. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
