Thailand wants to have F-35 stealth fighter jets make the US in a dilemma

SINGAPORE – Security experts argue plans Thailand to buy F-35 stealth fighter jets The United States (US) has put Washington in a dilemma. The reason is that the kingdom in Southeast Asia has been close to China in recent years.

In Southeast Asia, only Singapore has been approved by Washington to purchase the Lockheed Martin advanced fighter jet.

A pair of US F-35s are now on display at the Singapore Airshow, vying for potential customers in the volatile region. But Washington insists it will not sell its advanced fighter planes to just any country.

Several key US allies already have the F-35, including South Korea, Australia and Japan.

Thailand is actually also an ally of the US according to their old agreement. However, experts say there is no guarantee that Washington will approve the sale, given Thailand’s close defense ties to US strategic rival China.

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Two of the three aircraft variants, the F-35A and F-35B, have been delivered to the Singapore Airshow along with a number of other US military aircraft. That is widely seen as an attempt to impress regional markets amid concerns about, in Washington’s words, China’s most acute coercion and aggression in the Indo-Pacific.

The stealth fighter jet, manufactured by US defense aviation giant Lockheed Martin, has made headlines after an F-35C crashed on the carrier USS Carl Vinson and was flung into the South China Sea in late January. The US military is in the process of retrieving the plane, which crashed into the ocean floor.

“Despite the crash, the F-35 is still the most technologically advanced fighter aircraft on the market today,” said Richard Bitzinger, senior fellow of the Military Transformations Program at The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. Radio Free AsiaThursday (17/2/2022)

Tim Cahill, Lockheed Martin’s senior vice president for global business, confirmed on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow that Thailand had expressed interest in the F-35 fighter but it was up to the US government to sort it out.

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