WASHINGTON – Norway this week became the first of the F-35 international partner nations to make public its intent to participate in a proposed multiyear, multinational “block buy,” unveiling a budget request for 2017 that includes 12 additionalLockheed Martin fighter jets over the next few years. 
In the Norwegian government’s 2017 budget proposal, rolled out Oct. 6, the Norwegian government requested authorization to order 12 more F-35s in 2019 and 2020, including six in Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) lot 13 and another six in LRIP 14, Norwegian ministry of defense spokesman Endre Lunde tells Aviation Week. If OK’d, this would bring Norway’s number of approved F-35s to 40.
This blueprint would allow Norway to participate in the second and third years of the proposed international block buy, beginning in 2019 and covering lots 13 and 14. The government estimates the block buy will yield 385 million Norwegian Krone in savings, or about $48 million, Lunde says.
Under the block buy plan, U.S. and international export orders for three years – 2018 through 2020, covering LRIPs 12 through 14 – would be bundled together in a single contract as a way to generate savings for all the F-35 customers. The partners have been considering such a block buy for a number of years, but so far only the U.S. has announced its intent to participate. Joint Program Office Chief Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan estimates the joint buy would cover about 450 aircraft over three years and save more than $2 billion.
The U.S. expects to join the block buy, in lot 13, Bogdan said last month at the Air Force Association’s annual air and space conference. He anticipates that plan will be rolled out early next year along with President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2018 budget request.
Under the 2017 budget plan, Norway would enter the block buy at the same time as the U.S. The Norwegian government considered joining the buy at its start in 2018, but found that any additional savings would be offset by the need to make adjustments to domestic planning processes already well underway, Lunde says.
“On balance, our decision was that 13 and 14 was the better option,” he says.
All of the partners that are buying F-35s in lot 12 are on board with the block buy, Bogdan says. Aside from the U.S. and Norway, the other partner countries are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
“I know I have support from many of my partners to want to start in [LRIP] 12,” Bogdan says, though adding “not all of them are buying airplanes in lot 12, so they don’t have to make a choice yet.”
However, the other partner nations have been silent on any concrete plans for the block buy, and none have signaled their intent to participate in the first year.
Air Vice Marshall Leigh Gordon, Australia’s Joint Strike Fighter program chief, says his country is “very interested” in the block buy, but officials have some time before they need to make a final decision.
“Australia has 45 aircraft across the years that are being considered for the block buy, so we’re very interested,” Gordon said Oct. 6 during an event in Washington. “We don’t have to sign up to it quite yet but we’re working through the process, and to me it seems to be the smart thing to do.”
Mark Butler, assistant head of the UK ministry of defense’s international relations group, who also spoke during the event, declined to comment on the block buy.
Meanwhile, Canada is the big question mark. Ottawa had previously selected the F-35A to replace its aging F/A-18 Hornets, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s newly elected liberal government chose to review the F-35’s selection over concerns about the fighter jet’s cost. The Canadian government spent the summer consulting with the five major fighter manufacturers, and is currently analyzing that data, according to Lisa Campbell, Canada’s assistant deputy minister for military acquisitions, public services and procurement.
“We got a lot of great information, we’re analyzing it all now and giving advice to government, and we expect that there will be a decision soon,” Campbell says.
Overall, Norway has committed to buying up to 52 F-35 fighter jets over the next decade. The country is currently using its first four F-35As for pilot training at Luke AFB, Arizona, and is slated to receive six additional jets next year. Three of those aircraft will make the trans-Atlantic journey to Norway at the end of next year, touching down in their home country for the first time.  The additional aircraft proposed for lots 13 and 14 would be delivered in 2021 and 2022.
The Norwegian F-35s will reach initial operational capability in 2019, and full operational capability in 2025.