alt Hacker News> Many EU countries are falling over each-other to buy it
They are not buying it for its capabilities though, but to please their US ally/bully which would have retaliated economically otherwise.
See the very recent Swiss case were theirs pilots had chosen another aircraft (the french Rafale), only to be disavowed by their politics later on.
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varjag • last Monday at 8:20 AM
Much of existing European F-35 fleet predates Trump's first term. In fact now quite the opposite happens: other options being eyed from reliable partners, even if technically inferior.
gghffguhvc • last Monday at 8:12 AM
The pilots might have reassessed after Pakistan seemed to have shot three of them down from over 200km range. Intel failure blamed but likely many factors of which some presumably may be attributed to the planes.
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Maybe the EU shouldn’t have transformed themselves into US vassals then.
Nobody respects weakness, not even an ally. Ironically showing a spine and decoupling from the US on some topics would have hurt more short term, but would have been healthier in the long term.