A month after deciding in principle to acquire the F-35 fighter, Denmark on Thursday announced it will acquire 27 of the jets for about $3 billion, bringing them into service between 2021-2026. In a parliamentary statement, it said the F-35 bested the Eurofighter Typhoon and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet “in strategic, military, economic, and industrial” considerations and such a force will meet Denmark’s domestic security needs as well as its deployment obligations for NATO. Denmark is one of the nine F-35 developing partners, but always said it would compete its fighter buy when the time came. It’s now the seventh partner and 11th country overall to buy the jet. Denmark said it expects to take advantage of the “block buy” approach intended to secure lower prices for the F-35 by bundling the purchases of multiple countries, and can withdraw from the deal if jets are late or if the price is higher than agreed. Denmark will refrain from any “international activities” during the first few years the F-35 is entering service, and will at the same time retire its F-16s, the last one of which is to exit Danish service in 2024. The F-35s will enter Danish service in lots of between three and seven jets a year. The Skrydstrup base, home to F-16s now, will be “rebuilt” to accommodate the F-35.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design the Air Force said.