For the second time, President Trump says that the U.S. agreed to promote F-35s to Saudi Arabia as relations between the 2 nations hold bettering.
For the second time since late final 12 months, studies of U.S. acquiescence for the sale of F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has appeared, this time from President Donald Trump himself. The assertion was in Trump’s tackle on the Future Funding Precedence Summit in Miami, Florida, on Mar. 28, 2026.
“For the very first time, we agreed to promote Saudi Arabia maybe probably the most succesful fighter jet ever constructed, the F-35,” Trump mentioned. The President additionally made different feedback about U.S. army achievements within the marketing campaign in opposition to Iran, criticism of the regime in Tehran and burgeoning ties with Riyadh and its chief, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MBS), throughout his almost 90-minute speech.
On Nov. 4, 2025, Reuters reported, quoting White Home and DoW officers in deep background, that the Trump administration was contemplating a sale of 48 F-35s to Saudi Arabia, after the request had “cleared a key Pentagon hurdle.” This was forward of a MBS’s go to to Washington on the time. The ultimate deal would want to undergo formal approval by a number of workplaces, together with Congress, Division of State, Division of Protection, and a Protection Safety Cooperation Company (DSCA) notification.
This isn’t to say a sequence of diplomatic hurdles with relation to Israel, the result of the continuing warfare with Iran and wider West Asian politics.
Trump:
We agreed to promote the F-35 to Saudi Arabia. The F-35 is wonderful; we promote them very sparingly—we don’t need different folks to have them. pic.twitter.com/s8GvBaXn32
— Conflict Report (@clashreport) March 27, 2026
The geopolitics of promoting F-35s to Saudi Arabia
Arms gross sales probably price almost $142 billion have pushed Trump’s diplomacy with the KSA since his return to workplace, with the White Home calling them “the biggest protection cooperation settlement” by Washington. F-35 gross sales to Saudi Arabia additionally aids, a minimum of theoretically, eroding Beijing’s rising affect within the West Asia and North Africa area.
Nonetheless, with nations like Egypt merely utilizing their burgeoning ties with China as leverage to speed up stalled weapons offers and extract better geopolitical concessions, creeping Chinese language affect isn’t a direct menace. On the identical time, an F-35 sale to KSA wouldn’t harm Riyadh’s ties with Beijing both, because it maintains an eastward-shift by becoming a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Group (SCO) and participates within the Brazil Russia India China-Plus (BRICS+) grouping.
An instantaneous affect, if any, could be contradicting the acknowledged U.S. coverage of sustaining Israel’s qualitative edge within the area. An exception for the KSA to entry the F-35 would have been normalizing ties with Israel underneath the 2020’s Abraham Accords, which Riyadh has nonetheless held off from doing, in contrast to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Morocco.
Trump repeated that supply on the Future Funding Initiative Precedence summit in Miami on Mar. 28, 2026, talking concerning the area’s future. “The Center East shall be remodeled, and the way forward for that area is rarely, I don’t assume it’s ever seemed brighter […] We did the Abraham Accords. I hope you’re going to be moving into the Abraham Accords lastly,” Trump mentioned.
That is what Trump mentioned in full about F-35s for KSA on the FFIP, whereas praising Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MbS):
“After I hosted the crown prince on the White Home final fall, we formally designated the Kingdom as a significant non-NATO ally […] And for the very first time, we agreed to promote Saudi Arabia maybe probably the most succesful fighter jet ever constructed, the F-35.
The F-35 is wonderful, and we promote them very sparingly. We don’t need different folks to have them. I’m assured that this partnership and so many others around the globe will proceed to develop and thrive […]”
Whereas Riyadh’s reluctance was partly pushed by the scenario in Palestine, that is prone to now change. The Gulf nations, which have come underneath relentless Iranian strikes as a result of they host U.S. army bases and had been keen to reconcile with Iran, are actually reportedly pushing Trump to not finish his marketing campaign prematurely.
What wouldn’t it imply for the RSAF
If the Royal Saudi Air Drive (RSAF) does lay its palms on the F-35A, the plane is prone to substitute round 80 of the service’s Panavia Twister IDS strike plane. Reuters additionally reported on Nov. 20, 2025, that Riyadh’s F-35s wouldn’t be as refined because the Israeli Air Drive’s F-35I Adir, however however the F-35A would nonetheless mark a significant functionality improve.
הוא אדיר והוא גם בדרך לאיראן 😌
תיעוד מיוחד של מטוסי ה- F-35I בדרכם לתקיפה: pic.twitter.com/EKf9tPFmlm
— Israeli Air Drive (@IAFsite) March 15, 2026
Tel Aviv has the distinctive privilege of closely customizing its Lightning IIs with its personal {hardware}, believed to incorporate encrypted communications, information linking and networking suites. Nonetheless, probably the most fascinating inclusions are stealthy 600 gallon drop tanks and Conformal Gasoline Tanks (CFT), growing their fight vary and decreasing the necessity for aerial refuelers throughout strikes on Iran.
The remainder of the RSAF’s fleet can also be succesful, consisting of 84 new-build F-15SA, probably the most superior variants of the Eagle, and 65-68 F-15S plane upgraded to the F-15SR (Saudi Retrofit) commonplace. The service additionally has 72 Eurofighter Typhoons, though a deal for brand spanking new plane has been frozen due to objections by Germany over human rights points.
Conclusion
The continued warfare within the Center East does warrant the necessity for U.S. and allies to collectively have superior capabilities, however the diplomatic hurdles in mounting a mixed U.S., Israeli and Gulf Arab marketing campaign in opposition to Iran. By Mar. 29, 2026, KSA’s Ministry of Protection had reported the destruction of 1 Iranian ballistic missile close to Riyadh, and 18 drones.
אלפי חימושים, אלפי מטרות, מאות מטסים | נתונים ותיעודים חדשים מפעילות חיל-האוויר מתחילת מבצע “שאגת הארי”: pic.twitter.com/j7aJ5DjB8H
— Israeli Air Drive (@IAFsite) March 19, 2026
Whereas the lack of three U.S. F-15Es and the KC-135 over Iraq has been attributed respectively to pleasant hearth and a mid-air collision, the extraordinarily shut makes an attempt on the F-35, the F/A-18 Tremendous Hornet and the strike on the KC-135s and the E-3 Sentry AWACS at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia naked an undiminished Iranian standoff strike functionality.
Analysts had warned even earlier than the newest battle that Iran would reserve its beautiful ballistic, cruise missile, drone and surface-to-air arsenal for an extended, months-long escalatory marketing campaign. Even after a month of steady airstrikes, it’s being reported that solely a 3rd of Iran’s missile arsenal may need been destroyed.
SCOOP!!! — The USA can solely decide with certainty that it has destroyed a few third of Iran’s huge missile arsenal.The standing of round one other third is much less clear however bombings possible broken, destroyed or buried these missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers,…
— Phil Stewart (@phildstewart) March 27, 2026
