IT'S BEEN A good week for the Joint Strike Fighter. The one-size-fits-all, multi-purpose fighter, designated F-35, is slated for its first flight test this week, after delays of more than a year. Perhaps more significant was the Pentagon's acquiescence to British demands for "operational sovereignty" over the aircraft. The dispute centered on the Pentagon's reluctance to provide our British allies with some of the more sensitive information--mostly computer software--that would be necessary in order to maintain the aircraft. Essentially, the Pentagon wanted the British to allow Americans to maintain these systems in order to guard against the transfer of classified technologies, while the British threatened to pull out of the project altogether unless the Pentagon provided them with complete access.

The British have already made a $2 billion investment in research and development for the JSF, and have plans to purchase as many as 138 of the aircraft, all in a configuration referred to as STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing). The planes would replace an ageing fleet of Harriers that will be retired just as two new aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, are being deployed.

While Britain has the largest stake in the project of any foreign government, a number of others have made significant commitments to the JSF in the last week. Officials from the Canadian government were in Washington on Monday to sign a "memorandum of understanding" that "covers Canada's involvement with the aircraft over the next 39 years and acts as a road map for any future purchase." The Canadians are expected to purchase as many as 80 of the planes to replace their own aging fleet of CF-18s, but probably not until late in the next decade.

Australia, too, signed a memorandum of understanding this week with officials at the State Department, and is likely to commit to a purchase of as many as 100 of the aircraft by 2009.

Of course, it was unlikely that any of these Anglophone militaries would pull out of the project, especially the British, who are relying on the Pentagon to provide a STOVL aircraft for their carriers, and for which there is no comparable European alternative. More unexpected was the announcement this week that Turkey will also sign a memorandum of understanding before year's end, and will likely make a firm commitment to purchase approximately 100 F-35s in 2008. European governments had been pressing Turkey hard to join the Eurofighter Consortium, the EADS-led European rival to the JSF program, which has already delivered 100 Euorfighter Typhoons to Britain, France, Italy, and Germany. In a last ditch effort to secure Turkish participation, the consortium offered to make Turkey a full partner in the program, guaranteeing the "Turkish government $9 billion, $6 billion and $3.2 billion work share in return for the purchase of 120, 80 and 40 aircrafts respectively." But the Turks passed on the offer in favor of the JSF.

And finally, Saudi Arabia's previous commitment to purchase 48 Eurofighter Typhoons, with an option for an additional 24, is now in doubt. The Sunday Telegraph reported that "the row was sparked by a Serious Fraud Office investigation into an alleged £20m slush fund linked to Saudi arms deals and firms supplying BAE Systems, Britain's biggest defense company." That investigation was scuttled yesterday by the British attorney general in the interests of avoiding "serious damage" to relations between the two countries. Still, the Eurofighter appears ever more vulnerable to competition from the F-35. As the Lexington Institute's Loren Thompson explains, unlike the stealthy F-35, the Eurofighter is "the perfect design for returning a radar signature . . . it's not survivable."