Saudi Arabia has been asking for the F-35 for years. On Thursday it finally got an answer, and the answer was yes.

The US State Department approved a possible sale of 48 F-35 Lightning II fighters to the kingdom, an estimated $24.3 billion package that also covers 49 Pratt & Whitney engines, communications gear, spares and support. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress the same day.

That last sentence matters more than the headline. This is a clearance, not a contract. Congress now gets to look at it, and Congress has opinions.

Forty-Eight Jets, Forty-Nine Engines

The arithmetic is worth a second. The F-35 is a single-engine fighter, so 48 aircraft and 49 engines means the Saudis get exactly one spare. That is a lean package, and a sign this is a first tranche rather than a fleet.

Forty-eight airframes is roughly two squadrons. Enough to matter, not enough to reshape the Royal Saudi Air Force on its own. The RSAF today flies a broad Western mix: Boeing F-15s including the advanced F-15SA, plus European Tornados and Eurofighter Typhoons. The F-35 would be its first stealth aircraft and its first fifth-generation type.

The Israel Problem

Washington weighs every Middle East arms sale against a doctrine called the qualitative military edge: the principle that Israel keeps access to more advanced American weapons than its neighbours. It is the reason no Arab state has ever flown an F-35, and the reason this particular request has been stuck in the system for so long.

Israel has flown the F-35I Adir for about a decade and has built multiple squadrons around it. Israeli officials have voiced concern about the Riyadh sale even as Washington pushes for Saudi normalisation with Israel. Those two objectives have been pulling against each other since the Biden administration first explored an F-35-for-normalisation package, an effort that eventually stalled.

There is a second objection, and it is quieter. The New York Times reported this week that US intelligence analysts have raised the possibility that Beijing could gain access to F-35 technology through China partnerships with Riyadh. That is a reported concern rather than a stated government finding, and it is worth labelling as such. But it is exactly the sort of argument that gains weight in a congressional review.

What Riyadh Says

The Saudi embassy in Washington welcomed the approval within hours.

Saudi Arabia is the largest single customer for American arms. In 2025 the two countries agreed a package worth close to $142 billion, which the White House described at the time as the largest defence cooperation agreement Washington has ever signed. The kingdom made a direct appeal for the F-35 to President Trump in early 2025, and the administration has signalled openness to deeper defence cooperation ever since.

Now Comes Congress

Lawmakers have blocked and slowed Saudi arms deals before, most notably after the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and a bloc of members remains sceptical of deepening military ties with the kingdom. A congressional review is not a formality here.

Even if it clears, nobody is flying a Saudi F-35 soon. Production slots are spoken for years ahead, pilots and maintainers have to be trained, and infrastructure has to be built. The realistic horizon is the 2030s.

Still, something changed on Thursday. For fifteen years the answer to Saudi Arabia on the F-35 was no, or not yet, or let us talk about normalisation first. The answer is now a qualified yes with a price tag attached. Whatever Congress does next, the door that was nailed shut is standing open.

Sources: US Department of State; Defense Security Cooperation Agency congressional notification, 17 September 2026; Reuters; Defense News; France 24; NBC News; Stars and Stripes; Gulf News.