The government has definitively ruled out the purchase of fighters manufactured in the US. As reported by El País and confirmed to this newspaper by sources from the Ministry of Defense, the Spanish option is the current Eurofighter and later the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), both of European manufacture.
The decision comes after months of tension between the government of Pedro Sánchez and the administration of Donald Trump, among other issues, due to Spain's refusal to increase its security spending to 5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Last April, the government approved a plan for an extra 10.471 billion euros to reach the goal of increasing this allocation to 2% this year after pressure from NATO. The commitment that 89% of these funds will be invested in Spain would now be incompatible with acquiring a US model as a key piece of combat aviation.