Indonesia Wants to Buy the Su-35 Again Because the US Refuses to Sell the F-35

07 November 2020

Su-35 fighter (photo : Zap16)

Indonesia intends to return to buying Russian Su-35 fighter jets due to Washington's view of selling the F-35 stealth fighter to Jakarta.

Indonesia intends to return to buying Russian Su-35 fighter jets after the US officially refuses to supply the country with the fifth generation of stealth fighter F-35 Lightning II.

“The United States leaves Indonesia without fifth generation F-35 fighter jets, according to Indonesian Ambassador to the US - Mr. Muhammad Lutfi, Washington has no intention of selling the F-35 stealth fighter until Jakarta buys enough number of F-16 ", CNN Indonesia reported. 

According to the ambassador, Washington specifically said that Jakarta could not own the fifth generation Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter until it purchased the fourth generation US fighter. 

"So there are platforms we have to work on to get the F-35. We have to buy fourth generation F-16 fighters first," said Mr Lutfi. 

The Ambassador explained that in the near future, the United States will come to Indonesia with the proposal to purchase a batch of F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters, the Russian news publication Military Review said.

The local media and analysts quickly grasped the topic and claimed that the purchase of the US F-16 for the price of the Russian Su-35 - the fighter is even outperforming the F-35 is absurd.

“It was the Americans who asked for that. Why do we need the US F-16 if we can easily buy the Russian Su-35, which is even more dangerous than the F-35 ".

"We did everything we could, but the Americans refused to sell their planes - now it's Washington's problem," an Indonesian analyst told the local newspaper.

It should be noted that negotiations between Indonesia and Russia were conducted earlier, but then frozen due to the appearance of an opportunity for Jakarta to buy the F-35, along with concerns from the US imposition of embargo with CAATSA law, but now Indonesia can declare its intention to return to Russia's Su-35 fighter.

(BaoDatViet)