Portugal abandoned the plan to buy F-35 because of the limited worry

In an interview announced on March 13, Defense Minister Nuno Melo confirmed that the Portuguese Air Force needs to replace the F-16 fighter squadron, but emphasized that “it is impossible to ignore geopolitical factors” when choosing a new fighter model.

“The recent US perspective, considering the role of NATO and in the international strategic geography plan, forcing Portugal to think about the best options. It is necessary to consider some options, in which the ease of guessing the ally is an important factor, as well as it is necessary to consider European production activities and profits that choose to bring to Portugal economy,” he said.

Minister Melo warned that the US risk imposed limited operation, maintenance, supply of spare parts and factors that help to ensure Portuguese fighter can operate in any situation. “Remember the recent statements of the President and Secretary of State on NATO as well as the world situation,” he added.

Military experts said Portugal abandoned the plan to buy F-35 due to the potential limitations that the US could apply, including strict control of software upgrades, which played an important role in the process of optimization of performance and ensuring operation safety.

“The F-35 operating countries do not conduct independent tests outside the US continental territory. The security of the US government and the national defense policy also require US citizens to be in charge of a number of specific functions to protect the core technology of the US,” the US Air Force documents have written.

This policy shows that the US maintains strict control of advanced systems on the F-35 series, restricting foreign customers to edit aircraft independently. Israel is the only country outside the United States to intervene and edit the F-35 aircraft, but still not to access and change all technology on this fighter line.

“With NATO allies like Britain, Germany and Italy, these rules increase the concerns about self-determination in combat, especially when they depend on F-35 for important tasks such as nuclear deterrence,” said aviation expert DaviTiotti.

The plan to buy F-35 fighter has caused controversy in Portugal for months. General Joao Cartaxo Alves, Portuguese Air Force Chief of Staff, in April 2024, announced the process of replacing F-16 fighters with the F-35 that started, expected to last 20 years and cost nearly $ 6 billion.

However, the Portuguese Ministry of Defense then confirmed that the official procurement process has not been implemented for F-35 fighters. “This is a vision for the future, there is no program to buy F-16 replacement fighters,” said the Portuguese Defense Ministry spokesman Helena Carreiras.

The F-35 stealth fighter costs about 80-100 million USD per unit depending on the version. About 1,000 units were shipped and handed over to the US military with allies. F-35 fighters are expected to operate until 2088, the program will cost more than US $ 2,000 billion to manufacture and maintain operations.

However, many experts and former German officials on March 8 expressed concern that the possibility that the F-35 squadron had “hidden switches” that allowed the United States to disable them from afar. The United States and Lockheed Martin, the F-35 manufacturer, have not yet denied this question.

Even without a “hidden switch”, the army of European countries still depends heavily on spare parts, software updates and technical support from the US. This allows Washington to pressure, even hinder the efforts to operate and deploy the weapons of allies.