Posted on 02/15/2012 4:38:36 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
UPDATE 1-Italy cuts F-35 fighter orders by 30 pct
ROME, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Italy will cut its order for Lockheed Martin Corp's radar-evading F-35 fighter planes by more than 30 percent as part of Prime Minister Mario Monti's battle against state spending, Defence Minister Giampaolo Di Paola said on Wednesday.
Italy plans to buy 90 warplanes instead of the 131 it agreed to purchase a decade ago, Di Paola said in testimony to the joint Senate and Chamber of Deputies defence committees.
'It's a significant reduction that is coherent with our need to reduce spending,' he said. The reduction will save the country about a third of its original spending estimate, he said.
This would mean a saving of around 5 billion euros on the original estimate of 15 billion.
To shore up public accounts and stem contagion of the euro zone debt crisis, Monti imposed 33 billion euros in tax hikes and spending cuts at the end of last year, and on Tuesday he refused to back funding for Rome's bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games.
Following U.S. President Barack Obama's lead, Monti has now turned his sights on military spending.
On Monday Obama unveiled a 2013 defence budget that proposes cuts in Pentagon spending for the first time since 1998, slashing $487 billion in projected outlays over the next decade.
As part of the budget, the Pentagon postponed orders for 179 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters over the next five years to save $15.1 billion, though it says it still plans to purchase 2,443 jets in coming decades.
PARTNERS
Schedule delays in developing the Joint Strike Fighter and talk of lingering technical issues have prompted the United States' eight partners
(Excerpt) Read more at lse.co.uk ...
If the F-35B gets axed, Italy’s buy will drop to zero.
While they had the highest ratio of B-variants (62Bs and 69As), I don’t think it will drop to zero. The link below says that it could likely be 68 F-35As for the airforce and 22 B variants for the navy.
http://ukarmedforcescommentary.blogspot.in/2012/02/italys-defence-cuts-not-131-but-90-f35.html
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