United States plans to deploy F-35 in the middle East
MOSCOW, Feb 25 — RIA Novosti. The U.S. air force are going to place the F-35 in the middle East to combat the terrorist group “Islamic state”* in a few years, the newspaper Defense News, citing the head of air combat command, Herbert Carlisle (Herbert Carlisle).
“Placement in the middle East… planned in a few years,” said Campos, adding that small shipments of the F-35 to Europe and the Asia-Pacific region can be implemented this spring.
According to military, the F-35 can significantly help the U.S. air force in Syria and Iraq. As writes the edition, the Russian and Syrian military has placed the existing anti-aircraft missile systems in Syria to protect important objects.
“If you look at parts of Syria, inside this zone there is a fairly dense anti-aircraft threat. We try to resolve issues. We try to make sure they know that, of course, they don’t have to illuminate our aircraft, but these systems operate in the environment. They do not cover our planes with any type of radar sighting of the target in a large amount or to a significant extent… But these radars active,” he said.
Previously, the company Lockheed Martin announced that the total size of the price reduction under the contract to supply the Pentagon’s F-35 fighter amounted to 728 million dollars.
As noted in the concern, the personal involvement of President Donald trump in the F-35 has accelerated the negotiations and focused on reducing prices.
Aircraft-F-35 modifications A (simple version intended for export) has been recognized by experts of the air force in August 2016 ready for operation in combat conditions, after repeated delays due to elimination of the revealed problems.
*The group “Islamic state” (IG) is prohibited in Russia.