The US State Department approved a potential $24.3 billion sale of 48 F-35 stealth fighter jets to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, a move that would make the kingdom the first Arab nation to fly the aircraft and puts Washington’s decades-old commitment to preserving Israel’s regional military edge to its most direct test in years. The notification, sent to Congress, starts a 30-day window in which lawmakers can object before the deal is finalized; delivery of any jets would still take several years even if approved.
The package includes the 48 F-35A conventional takeoff-and-landing jets along with 49 Pratt & Whitney F135 engines, one held as a spare, plus secure communications equipment, electronic warfare support, training systems and logistics packages. “The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the military balance in the region,” the State Department said in its notice, language required under a 2008 amendment to the Arms Export Control Act that obligates Washington to ensure any Middle East arms sale does not erode Israel’s so-called qualitative military edge over its neighbors.
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Israel’s reaction has been notably more muted than in past cases where a Gulf state sought advanced US weaponry. Israeli officials did not strongly object to the Saudi deal, in contrast to their earlier campaign against a similar F-35 sale to Turkey, though Israel had pushed for Washington to condition the sale on Saudi normalization of relations with Israel. Trump urged Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman toward a normalization deal without formally tying it to the jets, and it remains unclear whether the US consulted directly with Israel on preserving its military advantage before issuing Thursday’s approval. Trump first signaled his intent to approve the sale before the crown prince’s White House visit last November.
The Saudi embassy in Washington welcomed the announcement, saying the transaction “reflects the strength and enduring nature” of the two countries’ relationship and would strengthen collective defense capabilities. Riyadh has pursued the F-35 for years as part of Crown Prince Mohammed’s broader Vision 2030 military modernization agenda, and had appealed directly to Trump for the jets in early 2025.
Washington has historically restricted F-35 sales to its closest allies, a group that includes a number of European NATO members and Israel. The US expelled Turkey, a NATO member, from the F-35 program entirely in 2019 after Ankara purchased a Russian S-400 air defense system, over fears Moscow could reverse-engineer the jet’s stealth technology. Saudi Arabia faces a different kind of scrutiny: the New York Times reported this week that US intelligence analysts have raised concerns that China could obtain F-35 technology through its existing defense and technology partnerships with Riyadh. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the sale should not proceed while intelligence agencies are warning it could put sensitive technology “within reach of the Chinese Communist Party.”
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The approval comes as Saudi Arabia has been drawn further into the region’s active conflicts. The kingdom has faced repeated drone and missile strikes from Iranian forces since the US and Israel launched their war against Iran in February, and separately has come under attack from Yemen’s Houthi rebels after fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized Yemeni government reignited in July following a lull of several years; the Houthis have declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and targeted shipping in the Red Sea. Washington has not entered the Yemen conflict directly, though a US official said this week that an American military task force is providing intelligence-sharing and planning support to Saudi forces.
The F-35 notification is the latest in a rapid succession of major US arms sales to Saudi Arabia this year. The State Department approved a $5 billion sale of more than 10,000 bombs, including 2,000-pound munitions, to Riyadh earlier in September, a $750 million sale of 60 tank engines and related equipment this month, and a $1.96 billion deal in July for guidance systems that convert unguided rockets into precision-guided weapons. Congressional scrutiny of arms sales to Saudi Arabia intensified after the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and some lawmakers remain wary of deepening military ties with the kingdom regardless of the current package’s stated safeguards.
