Tuesday, September 13, 2011

DTN News - BELGIUM DEFENSE NEWS: "Wikileaks" Sources Say That Belgium Wants To Purchase F-35 Aircraft

DTN News - BELGIUM DEFENSE NEWS: "Wikileaks" Sources Say That Belgium Wants To Purchase F-35 Aircraft

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - September 13, 2011: A newly-leaked US diplomatic cable provides the first public evidence of the Belgian government's plan to purchase the Lockheed Martin F-35 without a competition.

A meeting between the US ambassador to Brussels and Belgium's defence minister Pieter De Crem on 16 October 2009 was described in a cable revealed earlier this month by the Wikileaks organisation.

The cable notes that De Crem raised the subject of the F-35 during the meeting.

"He thinks that the [Belgian government] should purchase some of the aircraft 'off the shelf' from the partners as they become available, perhaps in the 2020 timeframe," the US embassy wrote.

In the late-1970s, Belgium joined with the Netherlands and Norway to jointly purchase Lockheed F-16A/Bs. Belgium's 50 F-16As and 10 F-16Bs range in age from 29.4 years to 19.8 years, according to Flightglobal's MiliCAS database.

Those F-16s are projected to be retired from service between 2015 and 2025, according to the cable.

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