The State Department said Thursday that the Trump administration was moving forward with the sale of 48 advanced F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, despite internal reports by U.S. intelligence agencies that China could acquire or steal the warplane’s technology.
The package of the jets and a spare engine, valued at $24.3 billion, “will improve Saudi Arabia’s capability to deter current and future threats by strengthening its homeland defense,” the State Department said in the announcement. The agency also gave formal notification to Congress of the pending sale.
If the production and delivery of the planes is completed, which would take years, Saudi Arabia would be only the second country in the Middle East to have F-35 jets, after Israel.
The State Department made the announcement one day after The New York Times reported on U.S. intelligence concerns on the sales. Internal reports expressing concerns about the possibility of F-35 technology being compromised by China and Saudi Arabia’s military partnership had been circulating among federal agencies and congressional committees.
One detailed report, issued months ago by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, raised questions about whether the Americans and Saudis would be able to secure sites with F-35 technology. It also raised concerns about the access that Chinese military personnel have to Saudi bases and the prevalent use by Saudi Arabia of Chinese technology in telecommunications infrastructure and defense installations.
Last fall, when administration officials were discussing the possibility of the F-35 sale, the D.I.A. compiled a more general internal report that asked tough questions about the growing partnership between China and Saudi Arabia, The Times reported at the time.
For one thing, China has been selling ballistic missiles to Saudi Arabia and helping it learn how to build such missiles.
Despite those concerns, President Trump announced the F-35 sale last November, on the eve of a visit to Washington by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia. The crown prince wants to build up the Saudi military, and he had been trying to buy F-35 jets from the United States for years.
The State Department put together the package and sent it to two congressional committees in June to get informal approval for the sale before announcing it. The department did not get nods of approval from all four of the most senior lawmakers on the committees until the middle of this week, U.S. officials said.
Other lawmakers denounced the sale after the department announced Thursday that it was proceeding.
“The Trump administration should not move forward with its proposed sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia when our own intelligence community is warning that it could put the crown jewels of American military technology within reach of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democrat of Illinois, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee.
Lawmakers have 30 days to review the sale and, if they oppose it, bring a joint resolution of disapproval. But such a resolution would need the support of two-thirds of both the House and Senate to be able to avoid a possible presidential veto. The House is on recess until November, and the Senate is about to go on recess, so any resolution introduced now would almost certainly not win passage.
The State Department said in a brief statement on Thursday that all defense sales and transfers follow laws and policy guidance that account for “a broad range of political and economic considerations, including protecting the U.S. military’s technological edge.”
Some Israeli officials have raised concerns about the sale, worried that the transaction would erode Israel’s military advantage over nearby Arab nations. Since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, U.S. policymakers have tried to ensure that Israel maintains its “qualitative military edge” in the region, as mandated by Congress.
The sale could run into pitfalls well before the jets would be delivered or even produced. The Biden administration ended the process for a sale of F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates that Mr. Trump announced in 2020, near the end of his first term. U.S. intelligence agencies expressed concerns then about the close ties between China and the Emirates.
Saudi Arabia is by far the biggest buyer of American weapons and has relied on them in recent wars. In 2015, Prince Mohammed started a disastrous war against the Houthis in Yemen, one in which Saudi-led forces dropped American-made bombs on civilians. Because of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, fighting between the Saudis and the Houthis, who are supported by Iran, has reignited.
Robert Jimison contributed reporting.
