Why Russia Would Love to See Britain Cut Its F-35 Fighter Purchasehttps://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/why-russia-would-love-see-britain-cut-its-f-35-fighter-purchase-180788Thus far, the U.K. has committed to buy 48 F-35s by 2025, according to the British The Times, which cites that large-scale cuts to the F-35 are likely to emerge from the U.K.’s upcoming defense review “Global Britain in a Competitive Age.â€
What would it mean for the U.K. and NATO, should the British F-35 fleet decrease from 138 to 45?
One thing which comes to mind is that the U.K. is not only surrounded by water but also of course borders the Baltic Sea, a region quickly accessible to Russian military forces. Being engineered for amphibious vertical take-off-and-landing, the F-35Bs could enable the British military to hold parts of the Russian coastline at risk of amphibious attack supported by 5th Gen aircraft.
In WW1 and WW2 the RN kept the German surface fleets largely bottled up in the Baltic Sea by dominating the North Sea. Russia remembers and naturally would rather the RN's ability to plug up the Baltic were diminished.
