Key Points and Summary: The F-35 has gained widespread adoption among NATO and allied countries, driven by its advanced capabilities, interoperability, and standardization benefits. Its ability to perform diverse missions, from air combat to electronic warfare, makes it a versatile choice.
-Geography plays a key role in its export success, as nations near adversaries like Russia and China prioritize stealth to counter peer threats.
-Recent NATO additions like Finland and Romania, and nuclear-sharing partners like Germany, have opted for the F-35 to enhance their defense posture.
-However, the fighter’s high cost and advanced stealth capabilities may not appeal to nations without peer adversaries or substantial budgets.
Why the F-35 Dominates NATO Air Forces
The F-35 has had outstanding success among NATO members. The fighter offers a distinct advantage for the alliance allies regarding capabilities and standardization.
With many NATO allies familiar with flying and maintaining the F-35, pilots from multiple national air forces can work seamlessly with crews from other countries — a boon to efficiency and standardization.
Despite the F-35’s relatively high per-unit cost, especially compared to non-stealthy, 4th generation fighters, the F-35 can carry out a variety of mission profiles, including air-to-air combat to electronic warfare and strikes against ground targets, offering militaries — and policymakers — and all-in-one platform.
Despite these clear advantages, one of the reasons behind the F-35’s export success is dictated by location.
Geography, Geography, Geography
F-35 exports, therefore, can be understood to a certain extent by the surrounding geography of the countries to which the stealth fighter has been exported. Take NATO countries that fly the F-35. In their immediate neighborhood, they face an increasingly isolated and violently belligerent Russia.
Moscow’s war of conquest in Ukraine has seen a massive spike in defense spending among NATO member countries that have not seen this since the Cold War and in countries outside the auspices of the alliance, like Switzerland. A beneficiary of that boost in defense spending has been the F-35 program.
F-35 Fighter. Image Credit: Lockheed Martin.
In Asia, the F-35 procurement decisions of South Korea, Japan, Australia, and Singapore point to worries about their near abroad.
In the case of South Korea, their defense needs are dictated by their neighbor to the north; however, Singapore, Australia, and Japan are deeply concerned about an increasingly expansionist China and Beijing’s potential designs on their near abroad.
Israel, too, saw its F-35 acquisition decision through the lens of its neighborhood, a part of the world chronically visited by violence by state and sub-state actors.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there have been a slew of European orders for the F-35. Finland — who joined NATO after the Russian invasion in what was a massive break from many decades of neutrality toward the alliance — bought into the program. This decision was arguably prompted by the fact that Finland shares a border with Russia and has fought against the Soviet Union in the recent past.
(April 8, 2021) U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning IIs assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 164 (Reinforced), 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, land on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD 8). The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group and embarked 15th MEU are operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Patrick Crosley)
In 2023, Germany opted to join the program, thanks to more complex reasons. Though Germany does not share a border with Russia, it does have a nuclear-sharing responsibility within NATO. As a part of that agreement, German pilots flying German jets could, in times of war, be called on to drop American nuclear weapons.
To carry out that mission, Germany flies Cold War-era Panavia Tornado jets. Though certified to deliver American nuclear weapons, Germany’s tornados are old and in need of replacement. The solution? F-35s.
Earlier this year, Romania became the latest member of NATO to opt into the F-35 program, almost exactly 20 years after first joining the alliance in 2004.
No Panacea for F-35
However, one of the fighters’ export weaknesses is that they are among the countries that do not need dedicated stealth capability. NATO members, Israel, and allies in Asia can expect to face peer or near-peer rivals or an enemy with a significant numerical advantage in war, justifying the acquisition of the F-35.
However, the F-35’s export potential — driven in part by its relatively high per-unit cost — is an unattractive choice for nations that need an upgraded fighter capability but lack the funds or, importantly, an adversary stealth warplane.
F-35 JSF. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
