Morocco and the F-35?

Corsair1963 · by **Corsair1963** » 01 Nov 2025, 07:32

Morocco remains in talks with the US over possible F-35 fighter jet sale.
30 Oct, 2025 - Defense News Aerospace 2025

The U.S. and Morocco are still negotiating a possible F-35 deal, with rumors citing an estimated $17B value and up to 32 aircraft under review.

According to Africa Intelligence on October 21, 2025, Washington and Rabat continue discussions on a potential sale of F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters. While unofficial estimates mention a package valued near $17 billion and involving up to 32 aircraft, neither government has confirmed these figures. The negotiations remain active within the Israel Qualitative Military Edge framework, with no finalized deal or delivery timeline announced, but occur amid Algeria’s acquisition of Russian Su-57 Felon fighters. [...]

Fulla rticle: https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/ae ... r-jet-sale

steve2267 · by **steve2267** » 09 Nov 2025, 21:55

Dumbass question (if I may): what is the threat scenario to Morocco that warrants the F-35?

ianh · by **ianh** » 10 Nov 2025, 00:37

Well they've already got F-16C Blk52+, Mirage F1 with the MF2000 upgrade, Chinooks, C-130 Hercs, C-27 Spartan, MQ-9 Reapers etc etc and they've ordered F-16C Blk72, Apache E's as well, so a well stocked but small in quantity air force, but outside of some central African deployments and Yemen, they don't seem to have a justified "need" for the F-35 at all TBH.

ricnunes · by **ricnunes** » 10 Nov 2025, 14:59

steve2267 wrote:Dumbass question (if I may): what is the threat scenario to Morocco that warrants the F-35?

ianh wrote:...but outside of some central African deployments and Yemen, they don't seem to have a justified "need" for the F-35 at all TBH.

IMO. both questions have a short answer composed by a single world:
- Algeria

The longer answer is that Algeria currently operates modern and capable aircraft such as Mig-29's including some Mig-29M's and specially the Sukhoi Su-30MKA. On top of this they have ordered Su-34's, Su-35's and also, Su-57's.
On top of this, the relations between both countries which are neighboring countries isn't good at all since Algeria always supported the Western Sahara independence movement while Morocco seem to support separatist movements inside Algeria.

So and as you can see, plenty of reasons why Morocco wants to buy F-35s.