The US Just Cleared F-35s for Saudi Arabia. Israel Has Never Shared That Sky.

The State Department formally approved a potential Foreign Military Sale of up to 48 F-35 Lightning II aircraft, 49 Pratt & Whitney F135 engines, and associated communications equipment, spare parts and support items to Saudi Arabia, announced 18 September 2026 and valued at $24.3 billion. Under standard arms-sale procedure this triggers a 30-day congressional review window, during which lawmakers can move to block the transaction. Even assuming approval clears that window, reporting notes a US production backlog that could delay actual delivery by years. Saudi Arabia has sought F-35s for years; until now, the US had only approved sales to its closest allies — a group that includes several European NATO members and Israel, but no Gulf Arab state. Turkey was formally excluded from the F-35 program in 2019 over separate security concerns (its purchase of the Russian S-400 system).

Trump publicly floated the sale in November 2025 during Mohammed bin Salman's Washington visit, so the September 2026 approval is the formal conclusion of a nearly year-long process rather than a sudden decision. The immediate trigger for finalizing it now appears tied to security conditions on the ground: Iran-backed Houthi forces attacked Saudi oil facilities and military bases in the days before the announcement and made, per a senior Yemeni military source, 'rapid advancement on coastal assets along the Red Sea that are key to shipping' — territory bearing on the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a second global oil chokepoint alongside Hormuz. The Saudi-Houthi conflict had already 'flared up again in July' with drone and missile strikes on oil operations. Reporting also links the timing to concern that Iranian pressure on both Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb could push oil prices up ahead of November's US midterm elections — a political incentive, on the American side, to visibly reinforce Saudi Arabia's own defenses rather than only its own strategic reserves.

Israeli officials — currently the region's only F-35 operator — have voiced concern about the sale despite a parallel US push for Saudi-Israel normalization; one Israeli security source told CNN 'the severity is not exaggerated. It is not good (for Israel).' Documents reviewed by Stars and Stripes warned the acquisition could 'diminish Israel's air superiority in the region.' The State Department's counter is explicit: the sale 'will not alter the military balance in the region,' invoking the 'longstanding US policy that Israel must have a military edge over potential regional adversaries' — a formal doctrine, not an improvised reassurance. Separately, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, raised a China angle: 'Beijing has spent decades stealing American intellectual property and technology to close the gap with the United States, and we must not help them do it.' A New York Times report cited by Breaking Defense says intelligence assessments warn the sale 'could give Beijing access to the jet's highly sensitive technology' — a concern rooted in Saudi Arabia's growing ties with China, not in anything Riyadh has been accused of doing yet.

Lockheed Martin's own statement frames the deal as reflecting a 'shared commitment to enduring security, stability, and long-term cooperation,' with capabilities that 'directly support' Saudi Vision 2030 — the kingdom's economic-diversification program — and says it is ready for 'continued collaboration as the U.S. Congressional review process advances.' A $24.3 billion order, plus 49 Pratt & Whitney engines, is a substantial multi-year revenue commitment for the F-35 program's US supply chain regardless of exactly when jets are delivered. For Saudi Arabia, F-35 access has been a long-sought marker of being treated as a first-tier US security partner rather than a customer for less advanced export variants — the UAE has 'similarly expressed interest' in the jet per Breaking Defense, underlining how scarce this tier of access has been in the region until now.

The reassuring reading: the State Department's 'will not alter the military balance' language is a formal invocation of the decades-old Qualitative Military Edge doctrine, not a one-off talking point, and a production backlog reportedly pushing real delivery years out gives both the US and Israel time to calibrate software, munitions and training restrictions the way prior sales to non-Israeli allies have used to preserve a gap even among F-35 operators. The skeptical reading: 'will not alter the military balance' is exactly what the US said before every prior regional arms sale that Israel subsequently treated as an erosion worth lobbying against, and an Israeli security source calling the situation 'not good' is a live objection, not a resolved one — documents reviewed by Stars and Stripes explicitly warn about diminished air superiority, which is a harder claim than diplomatic hedging. Whether a congressional review clears, what conditions get attached, and how the China technology-transfer question is resolved are all still open. We are not going to claim either side has already won this argument.