U.S. Approves $6.5B Sale of F-35's to Belgium

Good news out of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency today.

The U.S. has approved the sale of 34 F-35 JSF's to Belgium the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced today.

U.S. Approves Sale of F-35's

Sale will include 38 Pratt and Whitney engines. Jets would replace Belgium's F-16 fleet. Unfortunately, the source does not mention any MOU or other agreements on ALIS. Senate sources with knowledge of DSCA and arms deals have told me in the past that publicly available prices are generally lowballs.

a reply to: The one?

All sale prices are wrong. They go off the list price of the aircraft, before negotiations with the manufacturer are held. The discount can be anywhere from 10% up to 70%, depending on the type and how badly they need the business. In this case it'll be less discount, but those prices will still be off.

Right now, all they've approved is the right to negotiate with Lockheed. This isn't the actual sale of the aircraft yet. It could still fall apart if they can't agree on a price that makes sense. And they have to negotiate with P&W as well.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Great value-added post, thanks Zaph. I'm very interested to see how or if ALIS factors into the future deal.

a reply to: The one?

As far as I know, it's included in all aircraft, regardless of operator, but changes are made to meet specific requirements of each operator.