The US Air Force Withholds 1,763 F-35A Jets Purchase on Hold

The US Air Force has put on hold its decision to buy all the new 1,763 F-35A tactical aircraft in its program of record.The service is undertaking a study on how much many F-35s will the Air Force need. The US Air Force is conducting the study ahead of the fiscal 2023 budget.

It is grappled by the service’s chief of staff’s decision to bring down the types of fighters it flies from seven to only four main platforms.The four main platforms could include the Next Generation Air Dominance system, F-35A Joint Strike Fighter, F-15EX that will replace F-15 inventory, and the F-16.

The decision of the chief of staff for the UN Navy is very crucial for the F-35 program. Initially, the Air Force had planned to put into operation enough F-35sto replace its F-16s. But, the Chief of Staff’s decision to cut out on its plans to buy more F35 has put its plan on hold.The plans of the US Air Force to but all 1,763 F-35As have become a burning subject in the defense budgeting for about a decade.

The US Air Force strongly desires to boost its military capability to compete and win against the adversaries like China and Russia. For this, it needs high capability and high capacity military systems.  The particulars of how many fighter aircrafts the US Air Force will need are still not clear, but the service will have to make it clear that it needs to keep a balance between its capability and the number of fighter aircraft it needs.