Washington approved the potential foreign military sale of 48 F-35 Lightning II aircraft and related equipment to Saudi Arabia, the State Department said Thursday. The package is valued at about $24.3 billion. That’s the machinery of empire moving on schedule: jets, engines, cryptographic hardware, electronic warfare support, simulators, and long-term technical and logistical services, all lined up for a monarchy in the Gulf while ordinary people are left to live with the consequences.
The State Department said the deal includes 48 F-35 takeoff-and-landing jets, 49 Pratt & Whitney engines, advanced communications and cryptographic hardware, electronic warfare support, training simulators, and long-term technical and logistical services. Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney will serve as the primary contractors for the deal. The names at the top are familiar. The profit flows upward. The risk gets spread everywhere else.
Who Gets Armed
The sale goes to Saudi Arabia, which the State Department described as a non-NATO ally in the Gulf region. The department said the agreement is intended to advance U.S. foreign policy and national security goals by strengthening that ally and enhancing Saudi Arabia’s air-to-air and air-to-ground self-defense capabilities while reinforcing homeland defense and NATO forces. That’s the official language of domination: security for states, contracts for corporations, and a polished story about stability for everyone else.
The package is not small. At about $24.3 billion, it binds together aircraft, engines, electronics, training, and long-term support in one giant transfer of military power. Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney stand to serve as the primary contractors. The apparatus doesn’t just sell weapons. It sells dependence, maintenance, and a future of more hardware, more servicing, more lock-in.
Who Pays for “Security”
The State Department said the proposed sale will not alter the military balance in the region and that there will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of the proposed sale. That’s the kind of reassurance officials offer when they want the public to swallow another arms transfer without asking who benefits and who bleeds. The statement frames the deal as harmless, even as it moves advanced warplanes and support systems into a region already shaped by conflict and U.S.-Iran war tensions.
Reporting on the sale said it moved forward despite intelligence concerns within the U.S. government. That detail matters. The machinery of state didn’t stop because of caution from inside its own ranks. It kept going. The sale also landed in the context of broader Gulf security concerns, which is how permanent militarization gets dressed up as necessity.
Fox News’ live updates repeated the same aircraft count and valuation and tied the development to the wider conflict. The numbers stayed the same. The framing changed only enough to keep the war logic humming along. Same jets. Same price tag. Same old script.
What the Official Story Says
The State Department said the agreement would strengthen a non-NATO ally and support U.S. foreign policy and national security goals. It said the sale would enhance Saudi Arabia’s air-to-air and air-to-ground self-defense capabilities while reinforcing homeland defense and NATO forces. It also said there would be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness.
That’s the polished version. The one meant for press releases and compliant coverage. Behind it sits a familiar arrangement: state power, corporate profit, and military escalation presented as order. The people who will live under the shadow of these weapons don’t get a vote in the matter. The contractors do just fine either way.