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F-35 Sale to the UAE: How to Balance Competing Priorities
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Lt.-Col. Christine McVann - The F-35 is the most advanced fighter currently on the market, and acquiring it would significantly increase the UAE's deterrence against Iranian military activity. In the future, the UAE's relations with either Israel or the U.S. could shift, but the jet's sophistication would likely mitigate the impact of any such shift. The F-35 requires substantial maintenance and expertise, most of it provided through Lockheed Martin. The capabilities that make this aircraft so extraordinary would rapidly degrade without intensive assistance from the contractor. At the same time, Washington must figure out how to handle F-35 requests from additional partners who may be more politically problematic, by assessing the potential rise of hostile geopolitical realignments that might threaten American interests and Israeli security in the future. The writer, a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer who served in multiple Middle East military campaigns, is a military fellow at The Washington Institute.