Reuters:
Italy to cut F-35 fighter orders by 30 percent
Feb 15 (Reuters) - Italy will cut its orders for Lockheed Martin Corp's radar-evading F-35 fighter plane by more than 30 percent as part of a plan to reduce overall military spending, Defence Minister Giampaolo Di Paola said on Wednesday.
Italy plans to buy 90 warplanes, instead of the 131 it agreed to purchase in 2002, Di Paola said in testimony to the joint Senate and Chamber of Deputies defence committees. "It's a significant reduction that is coherent with our need to reduce spending," he said.
Italy's planned spending cuts follow those confirmed by the United States on Monday. The Pentagon postponed orders for 179 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters over the next five years to save $15.1 billion.
It is the third restructuring by the United States in recent years of the F-35 project, which is its biggest current weapons programme................