{"id":1797,"date":"2026-02-13T21:13:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/1797\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T21:13:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:13:05","slug":"belgium-wants-additional-f-35-jets-to-be-as-european-as-possible-says-defense-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/1797\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium wants additional F-35 jets to be ‘as European as possible,’ says defense minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

MUNICH \u2014 As part of discussions between Belgium<\/a> and US giant Lockheed Martin for a potential deal<\/a> covering 11 additional F-35A fifth-generation fighter jets, Brussels is pushing hard for hefty domestic industrial returns, according to the country\u2019s defense minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make the F-35 as European as possible, and there\u2019s a lot of opportunities and possibilities\u201d when it comes to securing an agreement on local supply chain financial gains, Theo Francken told Breaking Defense today on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. \u201cWe have to produce it in Cameri\u201d Air Base in northern Italy he added, home to final assembly of Italian and Dutch F-35 jets.
Francken held a meeting with Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet, to discuss the plan today, and said that a contract for the top-up order of the stealth aircraft will be signed \u201cthis year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brussels initially announced<\/a> its intention to acquire close to a dozen new F-35 fighters in July to accompany 34 aircraft already under contract. As of October, Belgium had received 11 units from the first acquisition, including eight based at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, according to a Lockheed Martin statement.<\/p>\n

European F-35 orders remain on track despite high profile geopolitical disagreements between the continent and Washington relating to issues including Greenland sovereignty<\/a>, Arctic security and international order<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In December however, Switzerland <\/a>reduced its order of 36 jets due to an estimated $610 million price hike enforced by the US government and following a contract dispute between the two sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked if Belgium would be happy to accept potential cost increases, Francken said, \u201cWe\u2019re talking about the industrial return. We had a really good meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The focus on expanding Belgium\u2019s local F-35 industrial footprint comes after its October agreement with Pratt and Whitney, enabling Safran Aero Boosters to indigenously produce components<\/a> of the F135 engine for the fighter jet. The pact also includes the strengthening of Safran Aero Boosters collaboration with Flanders-based BMT Aerospace, centering on implementation of an \u201cinnovative manufacturing concept of the engine\u2019s major components,\u201d said Safran at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MUNICH \u2014 As part of discussions between Belgium and US giant Lockheed Martin for a potential deal covering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1716,7,69,1086,662,1087,1717,451,1718],"class_list":{"0":"post-1797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-air-force","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-f-35","12":"tag-global","13":"tag-lockheed-martin","14":"tag-munich-security-conference-2026","15":"tag-nato","16":"tag-switzerland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}