Denmark’s parliament on Thursday put an official stamp on the choice of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to replace the country’s F-16 fighter fleet.
The F-35 beat out both the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Boeing [BA] F/A-18 Super Hornet as the country’s next-generation fighter. The Danish Ministry of Defense earlier this year recommended choosing the Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35A and Thursdays agreement between the nation’s four major political parties makes the acquisition official.
The agreement calls for the purchase of 27 conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-35A variants for a total 20 billion kroner, or just over $3 billion.
The Danish fleet will be purchased in a series of block buys that cover several years’ deliveries, a financing structure the U.S. military would like to adopt because of the efficiencies of scale it offers. Danish officials hope that efficiencies will enable the acquisition to occur without any impacts to other defense programs.
Before buying the final six aircraft, the Danish deal is structured so that the government can curtail its acquisition if the jets are not delivered on time or at the contracted price. The Danish government also has the option to increase the number of aircraft purchased at any time “within the defense’s economic framework.”
The U.S. F-35 Joint Program Office said it welcomes Denmark’s decision to operate the F-35.
“The Joint Program Office remains committed to delivering affordable, reliable and sustainable next-generation fighters to our allies and the U.S. services,” the JPO said in a statement. “The F-35 will be a linchpin for future coalition operations and help Denmark achieve its national security requirements.”
In a statement, the Danish Defense Ministry said the F-35 scored higher than the other fighters evaluated in strategic, military, economic and industrial metrics.
“In all four evaluation areas the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter is rated higher than the other fighter aircraft,” the statement said. “Based on the evaluation results, the parties agree that the future Danish fighter must be F-35A Joint Strike Fighter…The parties want to follow the development of the F-35 program closely and will be regularly informed of progress and risks in the program.”
Based on the operational and deployment schedule of the existing F-16 fleet, Denmark will phase in the F-35 over six years beginning in 2021 with the F-16 completely divested by 2024. The Danish military is accepting a margin of risk with this plan, noting that fighters on hand can fulfill its national strategy from 2024 but that it will have a limited ability to deploy fighter aircraft overseas in 2025.
Between 2022 and 2026, the Danish fighter fleet will be unable to perform all current international missions and from 2022 to 2024, there will be no international fighter deployments. From 2027 it is expected that the Joint Strike Fighter can solve the all tasks, both nationally and internationally.