The Dutch defense minister, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, proposed to Parliament the purchase of 37 F-35s — far fewer than the 85 planes initially envisioned before the European financial crisis put a squeeze on military budgets across the region.

The plan sets a budget of 4.5 billion euros, or $6 billion, for the aircraft and a further 270 million euros per year for maintenance and operating costs — equivalent to the annual operating costs of the current F-16 fleet. It also builds in a “contingency reserve” of 10 percent to account for any unforeseen rise in the final cost.

Deliveries of the first planes are expected to begin in 2019 and be completed by 2023, when the F-16 fleet will be phased out.

“The cutbacks in defense budgets which many NATO member states, including the Netherlands, are facing demand careful consideration and astute choice,” the ministry said in a statement. “Above all, opting for a modest number of the best aircraft attests to a sense of reality.”

The proposed order will be put to a parliamentary vote later this year, said Sascha Louwhoff, a defense ministry spokeswoman. Approval is likely, she said, given that the proposal has the support of the governing coalition of the conservative V.V.D. and Labor parties, which took power a year ago.

The Netherlands is one of nine countries that partnered to help develop the F-35 “Joint Strike Fighter,” securing lucrative subcontracting deals for local companies from Lockheed Martin. Most of those partners have stuck with the program despite the cost overruns that have put the plane at more than 70 percent over budget.

But opposition to the escalating costs had prompted some politicians in the Netherlands and other industrial partner countries, like Denmark and Canada, to urge that the process be opened up to competitive bids from other manufacturers, including Boeing, Saab of Sweden and Eurofighter, a European consortium led by European Aeronautic Defense and Space.

“This could have gone either way,” Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va., said of the Dutch decision. “Politics might have driven them to an open competition. The fact that they are staying in the fold is a boost for the program.”

After parliamentary approval, the Netherlands would become the seventh export customer for the F-35, after Australia, Britain, Israel, Italy, Japan and Norway. The American military is by far the largest customer for the F-35, with more than 2,400 planes of the three different models on order at an estimated cost of $392 billion.

In a statement, Lockheed Martin said it welcomed the Dutch decision, calling it “testimony to the Netherlands’ confidence in the program” and said the order would help secure high-technology jobs over the long term with Dutch companies involved in the plane’s design and manufacture.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/business/global/dutch-choose-f-35-fighter-jets-but-fewer-of-them.html?partner=rss&emc=rss