Britain to purchase 12 nuclear weapons-capable F-35 jets from U.S.
June 25 (UPI) -- Britain is purchasing at least a dozen F-35A fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons from the United States and will be joining NATO's dual-capable aircraft nuclear mission.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to make the announcement Wednesday, during the final day of the three-day NATO summit being held at The Hague.
"The UK's commitment to NATO is unquestionable, as is the alliance's contribution to keeping the UK safe and secure, but we must all step up to protect the Euro-Atlantic area for generations to come," Starmer said in a statement.
He added that the addition of the F-35A aircraft "will herald a new era for our world-leading Royal Air Force and deter hostile threats that threaten the UK and our allies."
The F-35A fighter jet is a Lockheed Martine aircraft that replaced the U.S. Air Forces' F-16 Fighting Falcon and A-10 Thunderbolt II, and packs 43,000 pounds of thrust.
According to 10 Downing Street, the newly purchased fighters will be based at Royal Air Force Marham, with expectations that London will procure 138 of them over the lifetime of the program.
NATO's nuclear deterrence policy and force rely on the United States' nuclear arsenal that has been deployed to Europe. According to the defensive military alliance, a number of countries have contributed dual-capable aircraft to the mission "and are available at various levels of readiness."
The announcement comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has been pressing NATO partners to do more to support their own defense and to rely less on Washington.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
Top U.S. diplomat Landau to attend Uribe funeral in Colombia
1 of 3 | Colombian Sen. Miguel Uribe, seen here in June 2024, died on Monday, his wife announced on social media, two months after he had been seriously wounded by a gunshot to the head during a campaign event. File Photo by Carlos Ortega/EPA Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau announced Tuesday that he will attend the memorial of Colombian Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay, who died this week from gunshot injuries he sustained in June while campaigning against the country's left-wing president. The State Department announced Tuesday that Landau was traveling to Bogota to attend the memorial service for Uribe, a conservative politician who died from his injuries after being shot in the head during a campaign event in June. Landau's visit comes as tensions between the United States and Colombia are high as the Trump administration has taken a more confrontational posture in Latin America. Speaking on Donald Trump Jr.'s Triggered podcast on Monday, Landau said his attendance at Uribe's funeral showed "our intense concern" about what he called the growing assassination attempts of right-wing candidates in multiple countries. "You can't have democracy if basically anybody who's right of center becomes a subject of assassination attempts or outright assassination," Landau said. Landau said Uribe was killed while speaking out against Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who was formerly a Marxist guerrilla. "There is not a single piece of evidence in the investigation that even suggests that the government is responsible for the murder of Senator Miguel Uribe," Petro said in a post on X Tuesday, suggesting the killing was being politicized. Petro has publicly clashed with President Donald Trump. He initially refused to take a deportation flight early in Trump's second term and spoke out against what he said was possible U.S. military intervention in neighboring Venezuela. Colombian authorities have arrested six people in connection to Uribe's death but have not identified a gunman or a motive, according to The New York Times. Landau said the Trump administration was taking renewed interest in "our own backyard," taking a more aggressive approach to drug cartels in Mexico and against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who won a third term last year amid widespread allegations of fraud. The Trump administration is offering a $50 million reward for the arrest and conviction of Maduro for alleged involvement in drug trafficking.
New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
What to expect from Friday's Trump-Putin summit on US soil: Will a peace deal actually be reached?
WASHINGTON — President Trump's Friday meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin may be the most-watched Washington-Moscow summit in decades — but don't expect any major decisions to be made as the US president seeks a 'more firm understanding' of how to end Moscow's war on Ukraine, sources and experts tell The Post. Trump, 79, plans to treat the meeting as a 'listening exercise' rather than a high-stakes negotiation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. While Putin, 72, has set audacious conditions for agreeing to a cease-fire with Ukraine, the US has made no concrete decision to date on whether to support them, sources familiar with the matter tell The Post. What Russia wants Among the demands reportedly pushed by Putin — almost entirely unchanged from the start of the war nearly three-and-a-half years ago — is the formal recognition by the US and Ukraine of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as Russian territory, despite Moscow being unable to secure them in 11 years of trying. Advertisement 4 Russia's President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump attend a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan June 28, 2019. REUTERS This recognition would include the roughly 30% of Donetsk and Luhansk that Russia does not control. The Kremlin also seeks a freezing of the current front lines. Advertisement The desires were communicated to Trump by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin at the Kremlin last week, according to European officials. However, Russia has not made these demands public, which is one reason why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would like a sitdown with Putin — to get the terms direct from the horse's mouth. Russia has also pushed for Ukraine to formally agree to never join NATO, a halt to shipments of Western weapons to Ukraine and a prohibition on NATO-aligned soldiers from setting foot on Ukrainian territory. 4 Putin and Trump last saw each other in 2019. AFP via Getty Images Advertisement Despite the White House insisting the war will be the primary topic, Russian officials have indicated they see the Alaska summit as a prime opportunity to discuss potential deals with the US — including opening up Alaskan airspace to Russian flights. 'We hope that the upcoming summit will give impetus to the normalization of bilateral relations,' Russia's deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told state media site Izvestia, noting that restoration of air traffic could be a possible topic. The Arctic and economic cooperation are also topics that interest Russia, Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov said, noting that the Kremlin hopes the meeting will lead to Trump going to Russia in the future. However, Russia observers have expressed concerns over the Alaska location — particularly as Moscow's hardliners have long 'lamented the loss of Russia's larger territorial extent throughout history,' George Barros of the Institute for the Study of War said Tuesday. Advertisement 'Russian nationalists have manufactured a pseudo-historical argument for why America's purchase of Alaska [in 1867] was illegitimate, and that Alaska is therefore actually legally Russian,' he said. 'This is all nonsense, of course.' 'The Russian nationalist doesn't respect the United States, but rather invents territorial disputes with its neighbors and seethes at Russa's diminished geography.' What Ukraine wants Zelensky, 47, has called Moscow's demands untenable for establishing a cease-fire, but has signaled openness to some concessions — so long as they are made as part of a final peace deal. Ending the war after more than three grueling years would be a positive for Zelensky, as his country has been ravaged by missile strikes, mines and Russian infantry. But the Ukrainian leader has been clear he will not accept peace at any price. 4 In this photo taken from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Thursday, July 31, 2025, a Russian Giatsint-S self-propelled gun fires towards Ukrainian positions on an undisclosed location in Ukraine. AP Zelensky has been adamant that Ukraine receive security guarantees, like NATO membership or nuclear weapons, to ensure Russia doesn't invade again in the future. 'It is impossible to talk about Ukraine without Ukraine, and no one will recognize that. That's why this conversation may be important for their bilateral track, but they cannot decide anything on Ukraine without us,' Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv Tuesday. 'I hope the US president understands that and takes into account.' What Trump wants Advertisement Friday will give the president a chance to observe Putin with his own eyes to better assess whether the Russian dictator is 'tapping [him] along' with empty promises of peace, as Trump himself has occasionally suggested might be the case. 'Only one party that's involved in this war is going to be present, and so this is for the president to go in and to get, again, a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end,' Leavitt said. 4 Various aircrafts are seen at Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, United States on July 2, 2024. Anadolu via Getty Images Secretary of State Marco Rubio similarly described the summit as a 'feel-out meeting, to be honest.' Advertisement 'The president talked to Putin on the phone three or four times, OK? And nothing has come of it — or at least we haven't gotten to where we want to be,' he said. 'And so the president feels like, 'Look, I've got to look at this guy across the table. I need to see him face-to-face. I need to hear him one-on-one. I need to make an assessment by looking at him.'' Trump made ending the war in Ukraine one of his major 2024 campaign promises, and securing a peace deal would provide a major bulwark for his foreign policy legacy. To that end, Trump is expected to raise the issue of land swaps between Russia and Ukraine to gauge Putin's reaction. The US president will also speak to European leaders ahead of Friday's meeting in addition to after the sitdown, sources familiar with the preparations say. 'The next meeting will be with Zelensky and Putin, or Zelensky and Putin and me. I'll be there if they need, but I want a meeting set up between the two leaders,' Trump said Monday. 'There'll be some land swapping.'
UPI
5 hours ago
- UPI
Trump administration wants review of Smithsonian exhibits, materials
1 of 3 | The Trump White House ordered a review of the Smithsonian Institution on Tuesday that will include the text of exhibits and other materials to ensure they promote what the administration says is a positive portrayal of American history. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo Aug. 12 (UPI) -- The White House has ordered a sweeping review of the Smithsonian's exhibitions and materials as part of President Donald Trump's efforts to promote a rosier presentation of the nation's past. The order came in a letter signed by three White House aides to Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III that was posted online Tuesday. The letter indicates that the Trump administration is again turning its attention on the Smithsonian, a premiere group of museums and research centers located in the nation's capital, as it seeks to reshape cultural institutions. The letter requested a sizable list of the Smithsonian's internal documents that will be used in a review to ensure the museum aligns with an earlier Trump administration directive "to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions." The review will focus on eight of the Smithsonian's museums with an eye on next year's 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the museum's plans for the event, according to the letter. Materials that will be included in the review included exhibition texts, educational materials and social media "to assess tone, historical framing, and alignment with American ideals." "As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding, it is more important than ever that our national museums reflect the unity, progress, and enduring values that define the American story," states the letter signed by aides Lindsey Halligan, Vince Haley and Russell Vought. This isn't the first time Trump has sought more control over the Smithsonian. Earlier in his term, Trump issued an executive order seeking to end "influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology" at the Smithsonian. More recently, Smithsonian staff temporarily removed references to Trump's two impeachments from an exhibit on presidential power. The upcoming review of the Smithsonian will also include interviews with staff to understand the development of its exhibits, according to the letter, which states that its goal is not to interfere with its operations. Additionally, the review will evaluate how existing materials and collections "are being used or could be used to highlight American achievement and progress" and if they should be conveyed to other institutions. Lastly, the review will seek "the development of consistent curatorial guidelines that reflect the Smithsonian's original mission."
