Italy to Decide At A Meeting Today Whether to Proceed With the F-35 Purchase And, If So, How Many Aircraft to Buy

February 8, 2012. David Pugliese - Defence Watch

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano will today chair a meeting of the Supreme Defense Council to decide whether Italy should continue with its planned acquisition of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, and if so how many it should buy, defense-aerospace.com reports.

Current plans call for Italy to buy 131 Joint Strike Fighters at a cost of about 15 billion euros, but in recent months considerable opposition has been voiced against spending that much money at a time when the country’s finances are in dire straits, according to the site.

Opposition has also focused on the government’s claims that the program would generate about 10,000 new jobs in industry. Alenia Aermacchi is to build F-35 port wing assemblies under license, while most Dutch and Italian F-35s are due to be assembled at a new center at Cameri air force base, which also will be responsible for major maintenance, but opponents say this will generate than 1,000 new jobs.