Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on August 6, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
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Spain decides against buying F-35 jets, focusing on Eurofighter and FCAS to align with European defense spending priorities.
MADRID (Reuters) -Spain is no longer considering the option of buying U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets and is choosing between European-made Eurofighter and the so-called Future Combat Air System (FCAS), a defence ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.
El Pais newspaper had reported earlier on Wednesday the government had shelved plans to buy the F-35, which is manufactured by U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.
The government had earmarked 6.25 billion euros ($7.24 billion) in its 2023 budget to buy new fighter jets, El Pais said.
But the Spanish government's plan to spend most of the additional 10.5 billion euros for defence this year in Europe made it impossible to acquire U.S.-made fighter jets, the newspaper reported.
Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced plans earlier this year to increase spending on defence to meet the current NATO target of 2% of gross domestic product this year, and later refused to raise spending to 5% in the longer run.
Sanchez's position was heavily criticized by U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to impose additional tariffs on the country's goods.
Spokespeople for Lockheed Martin and the U.S. embassy in Madrid did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Eurofighter is manufactured by Airbus, BAE systems and Leonardo, while FCAS is being developed by Dassault Aviation, Airbus and Indra Sistemas.
($1 = 0.8634 euros)
(Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Andrei Khalip)
Spain is choosing between the European-made Eurofighter and the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), having ruled out the U.S.-made F-35.
The Spanish government earmarked 6.25 billion euros (approximately $7.24 billion) in its 2023 budget for the purchase of new fighter jets.
Spain's decision not to acquire the F-35 is due to its commitment to spend the majority of its defense budget in Europe, making it financially unfeasible to purchase U.S.-made jets.
Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced plans to increase defense spending to meet NATO's target of 2% of gross domestic product this year.
Eurofighter is manufactured by Airbus, BAE Systems, and Leonardo, while FCAS is being developed by Dassault Aviation, Airbus, and Indra Sistemas.
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