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Biden Ready to Cut F-35 Buys, Alaska, Guam Missile Defenses in Budget Talks - Report

© AFP 2023 / BO AMSTRUPAn US F-35 fighter jet is pictured during an event of the US Air Force visiting with five US F-35 fighter jets at the Danish Airbase Fighter Wing Skrydstrup in Jutland, Denmark, on March 10, 2023.
An US F-35 fighter jet is pictured during an event of the US Air Force visiting with five US F-35 fighter jets at the Danish Airbase Fighter Wing Skrydstrup in Jutland, Denmark, on March 10, 2023. - Sputnik International, 1920, 15.02.2024
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - President Joe Biden is looking to reduce the number of expensive new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters the US armed forces want to buy in the coming fiscal year by 18% to stay within the financial limits imposed on the military budget by Congress, wire service reports said.
The Department of Defense had included a request for 83 new F-35s in the coming defense budget, but that would now be reduced to only 70 of the aircraft, saving $1.6 billion, the Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday.
Biden would cap the total military budget at $895 billion, Reuters reported, citing sources speaking on condition of anonymity.
An F-35C Lightning II carrier variant, assigned to the Salty Dogs of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, waits to launch on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73). VX-23 is conducting its third and final developmental test (DT-III) phase aboard George Washington in the Atlantic Ocean. The F-35C is expected to be Fleet operational in 2018.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 05.01.2024
Military
US Navy Pays Lockheed $1.15Bln More to Build New Maintenance Sites For F-35
The final agreed figure will be made public on March 11 following negotiations between Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the report said, citing the anonymous sources.
Plans to boost missile defenses at the US base on the Pacific island of Guam may also be slashed, along with planned modernization upgrades to the Ground-Based Interceptors (GBIs) in Alaska and proposed new SM3-1B interceptor missiles to be deployed on US Navy AEGIS destroyers and cruisers, the report said.
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