COPENHAGEN, DENMARK -- Finland has agreed to buy 64 Lockheed Martin fighter jets to replace its aging fleet of combat planes in a 10 billion-euro (US$11.3 billion) deal that represents the Finnish military's largest ever purchase, the government said Friday.
Finland picked the American company's F-35A fighters from five contenders, which also included the Boeing F-18 Super Hornet, the Dassault Rafale from France, Britain's Eurofighter Typhoon and the Saab Gripen from Sweden.
The Finnish air force has a fleet of more than 60 F-18 Hornets that were acquired from McDonnell Douglas in the early 1990s. It started looking for a successor aircraft in 2014.
The Defense Ministry said Friday that the price tag for the deal with Lockheed Martin includes training and other equipment.
European Union member Finland is a militarily non-aligned nation but closely cooperates with NATO in a way similar to neighboring Sweden.
Switzerland, another militarily non-aligned European country, and NATO members Denmark and Norway previously decided to buy the Lockheed Martin F-35.
Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometre (832-mile) border with Russia, has increased its bilateral defense and military cooperation with both Sweden and the United States in the past few years.
