Forum: F-35 Lightning II

Not much new news other than the politics. So...

Background:

"As the only ‘Level One’ partner on the F-35 programme, Britain has already invested $2 billion (£1.3 billion), but we have wavered on which variant of the F-35 we want and appear undecided on how many we are buying. The first planes are going to arrive four years later than planned and costs have doubled. And there are questions over the weapons our first F-35s will be able to carry."

Economic impact:

"According to defence equipment minister Peter Luff, around 15 per cent of the value of every F-35 built will be earned by British companies. A reduced UK order would not only make unit costs higher for all the other nations, it would probably lead to calls to take a lot of that workload away from British industry.
‘We have an industrial plan for each country based on the number of airplanes they tell us (they’re buying),’ says Lockheed’s Steve O’Bryan."

Moving forward:

"The British options are narrowing. The UK could buy 138 jets as planned, but over a longer period of time: this would keep spending lower year-on-year, but in the end the overall cost would be higher.

The second option could be for the UK to sell on a number of F-35s to someone else. But it’s difficult to see what country the UK might be able to sell to that haven’t already been approved and approached by the U.S. sales team.

The third option – reduce the number we buy – will have consequences for British industry.

Will the UK renegotiate the extent of its order with Lockheed? A review of this decision is expected. But that’s not until the next SDSR – which is scheduled to take place in 2015."

Selling their excess F-35 to another buyer? That is new.

Apparently the switch from -B to -C was not based on recommendations from below:

"Some have been here for over two years and the switch from the B to the C version was a surprise to them too [the British test pilots at Pax].

‘As I understand it, the decision was made pretty much in the minister’s office,’ says Commander Bow Wheaton, the Royal Navy officer in charge of the British test team."

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Forum: F-35 Lightning II

A British perspective of the current F-35 situation