Belgium refuses to accept delivery of 'technically unsatisfactory' F-35s
The Belgian Ministry of Defense has officially refused to accept deliveries of the first batches of F-35A stealth fighters ordered back in 2018 to replace the F-16 in stages, as this aircraft continues to be produced in a technically "inferior" version and requires many improvements for its key nodes and software.
It is noteworthy that Belgium was not a partner in the F-35 program, like neighboring Holland, Denmark and Norway, but chose these fighters in the 2018 tender in the face of competition from fourth-generation Rafale and Eurofighter fighters from European manufacturers. The choice of Brussels in favor of the F-35 was then explained by the desire to get a “more advanced” fifth-generation fighter, and largely influenced the results of later tenders in a number of other European countries, where the product of the American corporation Lockheed Martin has never, up to the present, lost European competing offers.
However, the fighter program suffers from serious problems with its actual combat capability: about 800 defects still appear unrepaired, and this number has not changed significantly over the past decade, both due to the slow speed of problem solving, and due to the constant discovery of more and more flaws. These problems not only rendered the fighter jet unsuitable for high-intensity warfare (which is not expected to change until at least 2030), but also severely compromised its affordability, required billions of dollars in additional operating costs, and endangered lives more than once. fighter operators
- notes the Western military publication Military Watch (MW).
According to current plans, the first deliveries of F-35s to Belgium were expected in annual batches of four aircraft, starting in the fall of 2023 and ending in 2028. This was supposed to allow the Belgian Air Force to phase out its F-16s, which are now being actively considered as "promising options" for their subsequent transfer to Ukraine as part of Western military assistance. Now, in the light of the official recognition by the Belgian military "technical unsatisfactory" F-35, the potential "release" of the F-16 from the Belgian Air Force and, accordingly, their shipment to Kyiv is postponed for a longer period.
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