Sourced : The Drive
By Joseph Trevithick
Despite apparent plans to buy advanced Russian fighter jets and the United States rebuffing the requests for years, the United Arab Emirates reportedly remains interested in joining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
The U.S. government has had long-standing concerns that such a sale could undermine Israel’s so-called “qualitative military edge” in the region, but jet’s controversial and centralized computer brain, known as the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), might actually help soothe those fears.
On Nov. 4, 2017, Defense News reported that experts and insiders had made clear that the UAE had a continued desire to buy F-35s, in spite of the United States’ repeated rejections of its requests.
The Gulf country has been seeking a preliminary briefing on the program since at least 2011. However, U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration have already approved a number of politically sensitive arms deals that the previous Administration of President Barak Obama had been inclined to delay or block outright.
Read more at : http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/15800/uae-could-become-the-first-middle-eastern-county-after-israel-to-get-the-f-35