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.