Washington Clears F-35 Jets for Saudi Arabia Without a Peace Deal

The State Department notified Congress on September 17, 2026, of a possible $24.3 billion sale of 48 F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. Transmittal 26-69 covers conventional takeoff aircraft and 49 Pratt & Whitney F135 engines, and it does not mention diplomatic ties with Israel.

Delivery would take years. The campaign driving the request is already in motion, with Iran-backed Houthi strikes on Saudi oil sites and bases and a pipeline taken offline.

What the $24.3 Billion Package Buys

The Bureau of Political-Military Affairs posted possible $24.3 billion foreign military sale language that reads like a restock notice, except the item is the only Western fifth-generation fighter still in production. Riyadh asked for forty-eight Lightning II jets with conventional takeoff and landing and forty-nine F135-PW-100 engines, forty-eight installed and one spare.

THE $24.3 BILLION F-35 REQUEST

The same paper stacks the kit that makes a stealth fleet usable: AN/PYQ-10 simple key loaders, KIV-78 cryptographic appliques, secure radios, precision navigation, electronic-warfare database support, simulators, spare parts, and repair-and-return. State said it knows of no offset agreement and that any offset would be bargained later between Riyadh and the companies.

It also said Saudi forces “will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment and services,” that U.S. readiness would not suffer, and that the sale “will not alter the military balance in the region.” The notice does not show how that last finding was tested against the statutory duty to keep Israel ahead of its neighbors.

The Peace Condition Is Missing From the Notice

For years the F-35 sat behind a political trade. The United Arab Emirates was offered up to 50 jets in 2020 after it agreed to open ties with Israel, and that file later stalled when Washington pressed Abu Dhabi over China. Biden officials treated a Saudi buy as a chip in the same game: jets if Riyadh moved toward recognition of Israel.

President Donald Trump told Riyadh in November 2025 that the aircraft were coming, on the eve of a White House visit by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In 2025 Washington had already cleared an arms package worth nearly $142 billion for the kingdom, which the White House called the largest defense cooperation agreement in its history. Thursday’s transmittal completes the jet piece of that turn, and it does so in silence on Israel.

The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh put the State formula on the record the same day, repeating the “major non-NATO ally” line and the $24.3 billion ceiling.

The U.S. Department of State has made a determination approving a possible foreign military sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for their purchase of F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter and related equipment. The estimated total cost is $24.3 billion.

This proposed sale will…

— U.S. Embassy Riyadh (@USAinKSA) September 17, 2026

That silence is the shift. Gulf capitals now have a working example that the most closely held U.S. fighter can move as a paid foreign military sale, not as the trophy for an Abraham Accords signing ceremony.

Congress Gets 30 Days While the House Is Away

A State determination does not ship airplanes. It starts a 30-day review in which lawmakers can try a joint resolution of disapproval. Killing the package over a veto would take two-thirds of both the House and the Senate. The House is in recess until November, and the Senate is preparing to leave, so a resolution filed against Transmittal 26-69 is unlikely to clear both chambers before the window closes on October 17, 2026.

U.S. officials said the four most senior members of the relevant committees did not all complete their informal nod until midweek. The file had been in a quieter committee review since June 2026, after Trump’s November pledge and after Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman spent time in Washington pressing the case.

THE PATH TO TRANSMITTAL 26-69

1. 2017: Saudi Arabia first signals interest in the F-35, while Washington keeps the jet off the Gulf list.
2. 2020: The first Trump administration clears an F-35 track for the United Arab Emirates after the Abraham Accords; the file later collapses over China and extra security conditions.
3. 2025: Washington approves a nearly $142 billion Saudi arms package, and in November Trump says the F-35s are part of the deal as he hosts the crown prince.
4. June 2026: The proposed fighter sale goes to congressional committees for informal review.
5. September 16, 2026: Internal U.S. intelligence warnings about Chinese access to F-35 technology in Saudi Arabia circulate in public.
6. September 17, 2026: State issues Transmittal 26-69 and starts the 30-day clock.

Most foreign military sales die of boredom on the Hill. This one has enemies, but the calendar is doing as much work as any whip count. The review that is supposed to police the most sensitive transfer in the region is running while one chamber is empty.

A Pentagon Warning Landed the Day Before

A day before the notice, U.S. intelligence officers described internal reports, including a Defense Intelligence Agency paper issued months ago, warning that China could reach F-35 technology through spying in the kingdom or through the Saudi-Chinese military and security relationship. A broader DIA paper in the fall of 2025 had already asked hard questions about that partnership, when the White House was still talking the sale through.

The detailed assessment, as American officials described it, looked at Chinese military access to Saudi bases and at Chinese gear inside Saudi telecommunications and defense installations. It asked whether sites that would hold F-35 technology could be limited to U.S. and Saudi officers and contractors, whether Riyadh would cut contact with Chinese military and intelligence services, and whether Huawei and ZTE equipment would come out of networks tied to the jets. China has sold ballistic missiles to Saudi Arabia and has helped the kingdom learn to build them.

State’s public paper does not answer those questions. It says the sale will improve Saudi Arabia’s ability “to deter current and future threats by strengthening its homeland defense, and improving interoperability with U.S. forces, and other regional and NATO forces.” It also says the deal “will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democratic representative from Illinois who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, opposed the fighter sale over China the day the notice went up.

The Trump Administration should not move forward with its proposed sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia when our own intelligence community is warning that it could put the crown jewels of American military technology within reach of the Chinese Communist Party. Beijing has spent decades stealing American intellectual property and technology to close the gap with the United States, and we must not help them do it. We must not sell our most advanced fighter jet anywhere the CCP may be able to get its hands on the technology inside it.

Raja Krishnamoorthi, U.S. representative, September 17, 2026 statement

WHAT THE DIA ASKED

• Base access: Chinese military personnel already have a footprint at Saudi facilities that would sit near a future F-35 operation.
• Telecom kit: Huawei and ZTE gear in Saudi networks and defense installations is treated as a path into the jet’s support system.
• Site control: The paper asks whether F-35 technology can be locked to U.S. and Saudi officers and contractors only.
• The wider cut: Analysts asked whether Riyadh would agree to limit contact with Chinese military and intelligence services as a condition of the buy.

Those are the same kinds of conditions that helped sink the Emirati file. The Saudi notice proceeds without saying which of them, if any, Riyadh has accepted.

Israel Keeps the Custom Jet and Loses Exclusivity

If the sale closes, Saudi Arabia would be the first Arab F-35 operator and only the second in the Middle East, after Israel. Israeli Air Force F-35I Adir jets have been in combat, including strikes on Iran. The IDF took three more aircraft at Nevatim Air Base on January 18, 2026, bringing the in-service fleet to 48, with two further jets still due later in 2026 to finish a 50-aircraft purchase. Lockheed’s program books list Israel at 75 F-35As.

U.S. law still requires Israel to keep a qualitative military edge required since 2008, meaning Israeli forces must hold superior systems against any credible conventional threat in the region. Washington has done that before by shipping a lesser export jet to an Arab buyer and a richer package to Israel, or by adding tankers, munitions, and extra F-35s in Jerusalem after a Gulf sale. The F-35I already carries Israeli electronic-warfare gear and weapons that a standard Saudi F-35 would not.

TWO F-35 FLEETS IN THE SAME REGION

An Israeli security official called a Saudi F-35 buy “very concerning” after Trump’s November 2025 pledge, and said the worry was “not exaggerated.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already gone public against F-35s for Turkey. After Thursday’s notice, Israeli officials did not immediately comment. The political fight in Jerusalem is no longer about whether the club of one survives. It is about what extra kit the United States will move to Israel so that the statute still has an answer on paper.

Stealth Fighters Will Not Reach the Houthi War

State’s own justification is deterrence against “current and future threats” and better air-to-air and air-to-ground self-defense. The current threat, in the weeks around the notice, is not another air force. Houthi drones and missiles have hit Saudi oil complexes and military bases, a pipeline has been taken offline, and Yemeni officers allied to Riyadh have asked for air cover that did not arrive.

A stealth fighter that lands years from now does not patrol the Red Sea this autumn. It does not sit alert against a one-way drone. It does not replace the cheap, attritable munitions that have defined the Yemen fight. The useful read of Transmittal 26-69 is not that Saudi Arabia is about to fly fifth-generation sorties over Marib. It is that Washington is selling a production slot, a training pipeline, and a long logistics tail, and calling that a reply to a war of drones.

That mismatch is the hole in the deterrence sentence. The kingdom can write a check that keeps the Fort Worth line busy into the next decade. The Houthis will still be in range of the things they already fire, at a fraction of the cost, while those 48 airframes are still metal in Texas.

Fort Worth and East Hartford Collect the Work

Lockheed Martin, asked about the notice, said the government-to-government agreement “exemplifies our shared commitment to enduring security, stability, and long-term cooperation,” tied the jet to Saudi Vision 2030, and said it “looks forward to continued collaboration as the U.S. Congressional review process advances.” Pratt & Whitney pointed questions to the F-35 Joint Program Office. Prices and quantities can still move in negotiation. No aircraft leaves the factory on a congressional notification.

THE F-35 LINE BEFORE SAUDI ARABIA

• $24.3 billion: The estimated ceiling on the Saudi request, engines and support included.
• 1,340+: Lockheed’s count of more than 1,340 F-35s already delivered as of June 25, 2026.
• 20: Program participants on that same fact sheet, from the United States and Britain through Israel, Japan, and newer European buyers.
• 48 and 48: Jets Israel already flies, and jets Saudi Arabia has now asked to buy.

Saudi Arabia would join a program that already lists 20 participants, not a boutique. The F-35 is a long-cycle industrial object: thousands of stealth parts that need specialist care, depot work on hundreds of components, and software measured in millions of lines. Without the contractor, the jet fades. That lock is one reason Washington likes to sell it to partners it wants to keep off Chinese and Russian fifth-generation offers. It is also why a DIA paper about Chinese access to Saudi bases is not a side issue. The support chain is the airplane.

The 30-day clock now runs to October 17, 2026, with the House away. If the sale survives, the first Saudi F-35 will still be a future factory problem. The policy choice is already on the table in Transmittal 26-69: the jet moved without a peace deal, under a finding that the regional balance will not change, on a calendar that makes a congressional stop unusually hard to finish.