Italy’s newly elected, center-left government is set to add its voice to the chorus of complaints from Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) partners, with one policy-maker calling for Rome to cancel purchase plans regardless of whether technology sharing with the United States improves.
Giovanni Urbani, aerospace spokesman for the Democratic Left, part of the new governing coalition, said April 11 that Italy should buy the strike-version of the Eurofighter Typhoon instead of the JSF as part of a move toward greater European industrial cooperation. Italy already is introducing Typhoons into service, but had planned to buy JSFs as well.