US clears F-35 sale to Romania, bolstering NATO’s eastern flank

The U.S. State Department on Friday announced it has approved the sale of 32 F-35A Joint Strike Fighters to Romania in a deal worth roughly $7.2 billion.

Romania’s deal for the Lockheed Martin-made F-35s will also include F135 engines made by Pratt & Whitney for each jet and a spare engine.

The sale would provide Romania, a NATO member, its first two squadrons of F-35s , and the country wants to later buy 16 more jets to make up a third squadron. If the deal is finalized, it could make Romania the third Eastern European country to fly the F-35, in addition to Poland and the Czech Republic.

Romania said in September 2023 that it expected to receive its first F-35s in 2030. Romania’s planned purchases could make it NATO’s largest F-35 operator on the eastern flank at a time when Russian aggression in Ukraine has worried allies.

The proposed sale would “improve Romania’s capability to meet current and future threats by further equipping it to conduct self-defense and regional security missions while enhancing interoperability with the United States and other NATO members,” the State Department said. Improving this NATO ally’s security would support the U.S.’s foreign policy and national security goals, it said.

The purchase would also provide logistics and maintenance support, navigation, communications and cryptographic equipment, ammunition and weapons, training for pilots and other personnel, and simulators. Lockheed primarily makes F-35s at its Fort Worth, Texas, facility.

The State Department also cleared a $4.1 billion deal for Japan to buy up to nine KC-46A Pegasus refueling tankers from Boeing.

Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.

美国国务院周五宣布，已批准向罗马尼亚出售 32 架 F-35A 联合攻击战斗机，交易价值约 72 亿美元。

罗马尼亚购买洛克希德·马丁公司制造的 F-35 战斗机的协议还将包括每架飞机配备一台普惠公司制造的 F135 发动机和一台备用发动机。

这笔军售将为北约成员国罗马尼亚带来其首批两个F-35战斗机中队，该国还计划之后再购买16架战机，组建第三个中队。如果交易最终达成，罗马尼亚将成为继波兰和捷克之后，第三个装备F-35战斗机的东欧国家。

罗马尼亚在 2023 年 9 月表示，预计将于 2030 年接收首批 F-35 战机。罗马尼亚的采购计划可能使其成为北约东翼最大的 F-35 用户，而此时俄罗斯在乌克兰的侵略行为令盟国感到担忧。

美国国务院表示，拟议的军售将“通过进一步装备罗马尼亚执行自卫和区域安全任务，并增强其与美国和其他北约成员国的互操作性，从而提高罗马尼亚应对当前和未来威胁的能力”。国务院还表示，提升这一北约盟国的安全将有助于实现美国的外交政策和国家安全目标。

此次采购还将包括后勤和维护支持、导航、通信和密码设备、弹药和武器、飞行员及其他人员的培训以及模拟器。洛克希德公司主要在其位于德克萨斯州沃斯堡的工厂生产F-35战斗机。

美国国务院还批准了一项价值 41 亿美元的交易，日本将从波音公司购买至多 9 架 KC-46A 飞马加油机。

斯蒂芬·洛西是《防务新闻》的空战记者。他此前曾在《空军时报》报道领导层和人事问题，并在Military.com网站报道五角大楼、特种作战和空战。他曾前往中东报道美国空军的行动。