The Portuguese Air Force is no longer expected to acquire the 5th generation F-35 fighter from Lockheed Martin, all due to the review of the US position towards NATO.
The Portuguese Air Force is no longer expected to acquire the 5th generation F-35 fighter from Lockheed Martin, all due to the review of the US position towards NATO.
To stay sovereign from who? Who’s coming for Portugal?
Give it time, and the US will. Or Russia. The two worst offenders in the “Colonial and imperialist empires”. Both of which are hard up on the sabre rattling at this time.
Portugal could never buy enough jets to stop the US. They need nukes. Not a ton! Just a few is enough to scare away other powers.
As for Russia, they’re literally the farthest country in Europe from them! Getting to Portugal would mean Europe has collapsed and can’t stop Russia, and once again, the only defense here would be nukes.
No, but Spain is right next to it and France isn’t that far. Both likely to help. But why would they help Portugal if Portugal itself doesn’t take meaningful steps to protect itself? You use a lot of exclamation points in your comments! That doesn’t magically mean you’re right.
So, in solidarity, with the rest of Europe, all arms equally, to defend.
United we stand, divided we fall.
Doesn’t matter. Every sovereign country has the right to enforce their rules in their airspace (in accordance with international law) at the very least
Okay, but every People have a right to demand their government spend money on social programs and not military boondoggles. Ultimately, what do the Portuguese want? Do they want more jets?
Of course. But they don’t have to go full MIC and could still keep a small fleet of jets that will be good for a few decades but at some point they’ve gotta modernize.
They could also not have a fleet of jets and they’d be fine.
When the shit goes down tho
We already have good social programs, but honestly they have been declining in quality over the last decade and a half. We still are much better than countries like America in this aspect. We have a number of defense companies, including a drone company, that could grow significantly with the expected European defense investments, which will generate jobs and more tax revenue to, if we are smart, improve our social welfare system.