A "sanitised" aircraft design should be approved by year-end to
sell the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to countries
outside the original international partnership. The non-partner
international variant is being approved ahead of expected Foreign
Military Sales orders from Israel and Singapore, and as a new
export campaign ramps up to target Japan.
The JSF joint programme office has forwarded its recommended design
to each of the three US armed services buying the F-35 and final
approvals from within the Office of the Secretary of Defense are
expected "well before the end of the year", says Jon Schreiber, the
US director of JSF international programmes.
Programme officials have also since mid-June received authorisation
from US export control officials to release design studies to
Israel that include the integration of unique weapon systems,
Schreiber says. Israel has requested integrating its own air-to-air
and air-to-surface weapons with the JSF, and "they will be able to
do their own gap analysis", he says.
The Netherlands and the UK are set to become the first
international buyers for the F-35 next year, with Italy to follow
in 2009. All three countries are to buy one or two aircraft during
low-rate initial production to participate in the operational
testing phase.
Meanwhile, the US government has decided to offer the F-35 instead
of the Lockheed F-22 as an option to meet Japan's F-X fighter
requirement. Boeing is expected to offer the F-15E or F/A-18E/F
Super Hornet, with the Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon also
to be offered.
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/06/28/215248/usa-to-approve-export-variant-of-f-35.html
