- Статьи
- World
- Getting ahead of Israel: The Pentagon is considering transferring F-35 aircraft to Saudi Arabia
Getting ahead of Israel: The Pentagon is considering transferring F-35 aircraft to Saudi Arabia
The Trump administration is considering Saudi Arabia's request to purchase up to 48 F-35 fighter jets. This was discussed on the eve of the visit of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Washington. If the multibillion-dollar deal goes through, the balance of power in the Middle East will change and Israel will lose its "qualitative military superiority." However, experts interviewed by Izvestia urge not to rush things.
They are preparing for the prince's visit
The Pentagon is currently considering the possibility of selling 48 modern F-35 fighter jets to Riyadh, the Reuters news agency reported, citing two senior sources.
Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia appealed directly to US President Donald Trump with this request. A possible deal was discussed on the eve of Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to the White House on November 18.
It is expected that the parties will negotiate major contracts, and the F-35 is one of the main items on Riyadh's wish list. Especially after Israeli planes calmly flew into Qatar's airspace last year and struck targets. This incident made the Saudis seriously think about their air defense.
According to sources, no final decision has been made on this issue: the arms deal has yet to be approved at the government, presidential and congressional levels. The Pentagon's political department has been working on a potential deal for several months, and now the case has reached the level of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Israel has been operating the F-35 for almost a decade, remaining the only country in the Middle East with this weapon system.
Saudi Arabia, the largest buyer of American weapons, has been seeking to acquire this fighter jet for years. The administration of former US President Joe Biden considered the possibility of supplying F-35s to Saudi Arabia as part of a comprehensive agreement that would include normalizing Riyadh's relations with Israel, but these efforts eventually stalled.
After returning to the White House, Trump made arms supplies to Riyadh one of his foreign policy priorities. In May, Washington agreed to sell the kingdom an arms package worth almost $142 billion, which the White House called "the largest defense cooperation agreement" ever concluded by Washington.
The Saudi Arabian Air Force has at its disposal various types of fighters, including F-15, European Tornadoes and Typhoons.
It is possible that at least Congress may oppose the deal. Earlier, lawmakers had already questioned the expediency of arms deals with Riyadh after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Some members of Congress remain wary of deepening military cooperation with the kingdom.
Israel will not allow it.
Andrey Ontikov, an orientalist, publicist, and author of the Vostochny Vorota Telegram channel, believes that there is no need to jump to conclusions yet. The sale of the F-35 to Saudi Arabia has not been finalized, and the kingdom is unlikely to receive these aircraft.
— In 2020, the United States actually gave the "green light" for the sale of these aircraft to the United Arab Emirates, but then Israel strongly opposed it. He formulated this position against the background of reconciliation with the UAE," the expert explained in a conversation with Izvestia.
In his opinion, despite the establishment of diplomatic contacts, the degree of distrust pushed the Israeli leadership to such steps.
— As far as I understand, then the Israelis were able to push through the US rejection of the deal with the UAE, and now history repeats itself, only with Saudi Arabia. Let's see what Israel says," the expert believes.
Ontikov added that the Israeli authorities are unlikely to be thrilled with the prospect of selling the F-35 to Riyadh.
— First of all, the UAE has diplomatic relations with Israel, but Saudi Arabia does not. And despite the fact that attempts to restore these relations were made even before the crisis in the Gaza Strip, there is no prospect of reconciliation between the two countries now, the analyst believes.
The expert added that the United States supplies a lot of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other Middle Eastern states. The main condition of Israel regarding all arms contracts between America and the countries of the region is that the buyers of weapons do not gain military superiority over Israel," Ontikov is sure.
He believes that the Israelis will use all their lobbying capabilities to prevent such a situation.
— They succeeded last time, let's see what happens now, — concluded the orientalist.
A political step
Danila Krylov, a researcher at the Department of the Near and Post-Soviet East of the INION RAS, Candidate of Political Sciences, noted in an interview with Izvestia that there are two aspects to the issue of potential aircraft supplies.
— First of all, the nuance is political. Riyadh's request indicates not so much that the kingdom depends on Washington, but rather that the Middle Eastern country does not want to quarrel with America. This is a rather elegant diplomatic step on their part. The cost of purchasing weapons and equipment from Saudi Arabia is one of the largest, if not the largest in the world," the political scientist noted.
The expert stressed that this is not about the military budget, but specifically about the cost of purchasing weapons.
— They don't produce much themselves, buying different weapons from different countries of the world. This is not to say that the army of Riyadh is strengthening in this way.: they use very different weapons, which do not always combine with each other due to technical and structural features," the specialist explained.
The Arabist added that despite attempts to ensure security, in the event of a real threat, the Saudi army is unlikely to be able to fully defend the country.
— Any supply of military equipment, whether American or Russian, is always a long—running topic. It's not enough to install weapons, which will take more than one year, we also need components for it," the analyst noted.
According to the Arabist, such a long-term deal underlines that Riyadh in no way wants to act against Washington in any way.
— The Saudi authorities advocate the verification of relations and the search for different partners, they do not have an American-centric vector. At the same time, Americans sometimes behave quite aggressively in a diplomatic environment. In order not to have unnecessary problems, the kingdom's authorities took this step," Krylov said.
The political scientist believes that Israel will not protest much.
— The Saudis as a whole have never carried out any anti-Israeli actions. Yes, there have been condemnations of certain actions, but political statements and real actions are very different things, they should not be confused," the expert believes.
According to the expert, Israel is beneficial to many regional players, both from the economic point of view, and from the point of view of security, and even for long-term cooperation.
"There are many options for why the two Middle Eastern countries should cooperate and why they don't have to fight too much," the analyst is sure.
The orientalist believes that, in principle, neither the supply of this particular American equipment, nor the supply of equipment in general, strengthen the military position of Riyadh.
— The Saudis do not have any external strong players who would pose a threat to them or would like to attack. Iran, Turkey or Israel do not consider Saudi Arabia as a potential target for military and political actions," Danila Krylov explained.
He also added that these planes would not help in the fight against small regional opponents, such as the Houthis in Yemen.
— The Houthis either resort to sabotage on the ground or use UAVs. The F-35 is an expensive technique, it is more symbolic. Turkey didn't get the F-35, but Saudi Arabia will. This is a kind of marker showing that Riyadh is behaving more cunningly, diplomatically and cautiously," the expert believes.
According to the expert, this is rather a political step in the regional arena.
"In local conflicts, the Russian Pantsiri—S1 will be more interesting and more effective than the supply of F-35s," the analyst concluded.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
