Italy may cut its F-35 order... In favor of ground attack Typhoons.
F-35B. Italy may drop its order down to 45 instead of 90. After the USA and Great Britain, Italy has been the largest investor so far in the F-35 program. Italy is such a large player in the JSF world that a good portion of F-35 assembly would happen in Italy itself . All is not well with the Italian F-35 purchase, however. Amidst economic woes , Italy has already dropped its order of F-35s from the planned 131 down to 90. There has been some movement to cancel the Italian purchase altogether , but so far it looks like an Italian purchase is inevitable. The biggest questions remaining are "when?" and "how many?" Italy's coalition parliament must agree to further spending on the F-35 program, pending a 6-month review of the program . Given the recent US DOT&E review of the program, Italy's review may not prove promising. Now there is word that Italian politicians may reduce the F-35 order further down to 45 jets out of the already low...