State Department OKs potential $24B fighter jet sale to Saudis

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Welcome to The Hill's Defense & NatSec newsletter{beacon} Defense &National Security Defense &National Security The Big Story State Department OKs potential $24B fighter jet sale to Saudis The State Department announced Thursday that it approved a potential $24 billion sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, despite worries from defense officials and lawmakers that China could acquire the plane's technology. Boris Grdanoski, Associated Press file The potential sale, which can still be paused by Congress, includes 48 F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft with conventional takeoff and landing and 49 Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engines, the State Department said in a press release. If the sale goes through, Saudi Arabia would become only the second country in the Middle East to operate the U.S. F-35s, apart from Israel. Israel has long been against the Kingdom acquiring the fighter planes, worrying that the sale would alter the country's so-called qualitative military edge (QME), a regional superiority that Congress committed to follow in a 2008 law. But the State Department said on Thursday the potential sale "will not alter the military balance in the region." The sale would improve Saudi Arabia's "capability to deter current and future threats by strengthening its homeland defense, and improving interoperability with U.S. forces, and other regional and NATO forces," the department said, adding the transaction would "augment Saudi Arabia’s operational aircraft and enhance its air-to-air, and air-to-ground self-defense capability." The potential sale of the stealth aircraft - which is produced by Lockheed Martin and can gather intelligence and conduct long-range strike missions would present a major warfare upgrade for Saudi Arabia's air force and could affect the balance of power in the Middle East, experts told The Hill last November. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) urged the Trump administration not to move forward with the sale "when our own intelligence community is warning that it could put the crown jewels of American military technology within reach of the Chinese Communist Party." "Beijing has spent decades stealing American intellectual property and technology to close the gap with the United States, and we must not help them do it," Krishnamoorthi wrote Thursday on the social platform X. "We must not sell our most advanced fighter jet anywhere the CCP may be able to get its hands on the technology inside it." The sale of the fighter jets, which Saudi Arabia has long sought, comes as the kingdom has come under fire from Iranian one-way attack drones and missiles since the start of the U.S. war against Iran and recent attacks from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Welcome to The Hill’s Defense & National Security newsletter, I’m Filip Timotija — your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. Essential Reads How policy will affect defense and national security now and inthe future: Pentagon No. 3 frustrates senators in closed-door briefing on Iran war, Trump defense strategy Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike emerged Thursday from a closed-door briefing frustrated by what they said was a lack of clear answers from Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby on the Trump administration’s National Defense Strategy and the ongoing Iran war. 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