Finland reportedly moving toward buy of F-35 in $11B tender

Finland is reportedly set to pick Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighter jet as its next-generation fighter jet, according to Iltalehti newspaper. 

On December 5, the newspaper reported that the Finnish Defence Forces have proposed to the Ministry of Defense that an F-35 fighter be acquired as the new fighter of the Finnish Air Force.

Finland aims to spend about 10 billion euro ($11.3 billion) on new fighter aircraft to replace its F/A-18 Hornet fleet.

From European countries, Switzerland has ordered US F-35 fighters this year. In November, Martin Sonderegger, Director of Materials at the Swiss Ministry of Defense, visited Helsinki and met with Raimo Jyväsjärvi, Head of the Resource Policy Department at the Ministry of Defense.

According to sources, the government will decide on the acquisition of the fighter within about ten days. The announcement of the solution would not be left for Christmas week.

The Government’s decision is the first to be reported to the machine manufacturer’s domestic government.

For the F-35, this means that the U.S. Department of Defense would be the first to receive information on the selection from the Pentagon. After the transmission of this information, the choice of machine is to be announced practically immediately.

A wider briefing on the selection criteria would be held after the announcement of the fighter’s name.