DUBAI AIRSHOW and WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump today announced that he expects to sell Saudi Arabia the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a long-sought commitment from the Kingdom and a major boost to the Lockheed Martin-produced jet.
“They want to buy them, they’ve been a great ally. … I will say that we will be doing that, we’ll be selling F-35s,” Trump said in the Oval Office Monday in response to a question about the potential sale. His comments come ahead of a visit to the White House by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump did not expand on whether that deal would be completed during the visit by bin Salman, which reportedly may also involve some sort of security agreement between Saudi Arabia and the US. Trump’s comments Monday were a stronger version of a statement he gave at the end of last week indicating the F-35 was on the table for this visit.
“They wanna buy a lot of jets,” Trump reportedly said, adding “I’m looking at that. They’ve asked me to look at it. They want to buy a lot of ’35’s — but they want to buy actually more than that, fighter jets.”
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been keen to join the F-35 club since 2017, the same year that the United Arab Emirates voiced its intent to procure the US-built, fifth-generation fighter jet. The UAE actually inked a deal for the jet in the waning days of the Trump administration, but that deal was frozen indefinitely by the Biden administration over concerns about the prevalence of Chinese technology in the UAE’s networks.
But neither Gulf power has given up on the dream of owning the F-35. Now, it seems the Saudis may be lined up to achieve their goal.
At a media briefing at the Dubai Air Show in the UAE, Lockhee’s Steve Sheehy, vice president of Aeronautics Strategy & Business Development, declined to delve into details of the potential sale to Riyadh.
“President Trump made the announcement,” he said. “We appreciate his supporting of the F-35 program. But this is right now still in a government-to-government position. That’s what we see at the moment.”
UPDATED 11/18/2025 at 7:16am ET to include comments from the Lockheed official.
PHOTOS: Dubai Airshow 2025
Gallery
