Originally Posted by Fattyfireplug
F-35 was developed as an international fighter. F22 is exclusive to US only.

Why would we not sell to our allies? The entire purpose was to sell to allies.

Many nations fly the F-35. It's inferior to the F-22 and even the F-15EX in some respects.

The last I checked the Saudies are allies. While I don't trust any of our "allies" I also understand I'm isolationist to a degree. But we do have allies and we sell our tech to them.

They are Arab. Muslim. I don't care for either, but I'm not narrow minded enough to think we don't have to have allies amongst that demographic.

Why do you think we shouldn't sell it to our allies? Not picking at you. I'm curious. We already sell to the following nations. A few of which are easily more questionable than Saudi Arabia.

United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Belgium, Poland, Finland, Canada, Switzerland, Singapore, Czech Republic, Greece, and Romania

Edit: I'd bet good money the US has the ability to pick these planes up on radar somewhow. And I'd also bet theres a mechanism to disable them if needed.
Saudi Arabia and China participated in joint military exercises a while back, so there’s that. Hopefully China won’t end up with one of these. I still haven’t forgotten that the majority of pilots of the planes used as weapons on 9-11 were Saudis. I guess I don’t trust them and from what I’m reading the Pentagon has reservations about the sale.

Last edited by jmj120; 11/18/25 05:58 AM.