"The F35 fulfilled the demands for preparedness, industrial cooperation and cost," Defence minister Antti Kaikkonen told a press conference.

"In comparisons of the military capabilities, the F35 overall system was the best at meeting our needs," he said, citing the plane's "battle, intelligence and resilience capabilities".

Lockheed Martin saw rival bids from Boeing, France's Dassault, Swedish Saab and the Eurofighter consortium of the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain.

After a six-year tendering process, during which the planes were tested for their ability to operate in Arctic conditions, the Finnish defence forces will replace its existing fleet of F/A-18 Hornets by 2030, with the total costs of the procurement and infrastructure improvements reaching around 10 billion euros.

Kaikkonen did not announce the value of the deal although Finland's parliament last year allocated a maximum of 10 billion euros to the procurement, making it Finland's largest ever arms deal.

The government has also budgeted for a further 10 billion euros to the maintenance and upgrade costs of the fighters, which are expected to remain in service until the 2060s.

But some commentators have accused Finland of over-optimism towards the life cycle costs of the F-35A, pointing out that the government has budgeted less than half the cost per fighter allocated by Switzerland, which this June decided to replace its own fleet with F-35s.