The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the UK does not yet have a domestic facility to measure the stealth characteristics of its F-35B fleet, with a revised business case for a sovereign verification site now delayed until 2027, the UK Defence Journal understands.
Ben Obese-Jecty MP tabled a series of written questions asking how many UK aircraft had undergone stealth-signature measurement, how such checks are currently carried out, and what progress had been made on the long-planned Air Signature Assessment Facility.
Defence Minister Luke Pollard gave the same response to all three questions, stating that “a revised Business Case for a Sovereign Low Observable Verification Facility will be submitted in 2027” and adding that the ministry will not comment on the stealth characteristics of individual aircraft “for very obvious operational reasons.”
The answers follow earlier scrutiny from the National Audit Office, which reported that the Air Signature Assessment Facility remains the sole major piece of F-35 infrastructure the UK has not delivered. The NAO said the project had been delayed for affordability reasons and “will now not be delivered until the 2030s, albeit with partial mitigations planned.”
Those mitigations were clarified in evidence previously provided to the Public Accounts Committee by former Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Defence David Williams. He wrote that the department postponed construction in 2021 to avoid £82 million of spending in that spending review period.
The expected cost of the facility had been £151 million, with delivery now tentatively planned for 2032. Williams added that the MoD is exploring whether a lower-cost verification method is feasible and that “as a partial mitigation, the UK will send some aircraft to undergo verification testing in Italy.”
Oh do you not love the urgency shown by MOD and HMG? Is there anything at all that is not being put back, put off, delayed or just dithered over like an old woman? Pathetic. Thank God the Ukrainians are keeping the Ruskis busy for a good while.
It’s probably not worth building one until tempest is better defined. They’ll probably be focused on different frequencies.
That’s a good point, but you can bet the F-35 business case and and introduction will occur just as they decide damn we better reassess what we need for Tempest meaning either delay or obsolescence no doubt. Or both.
Can you see it ? Yes.
Can you hear it ? yes.
Can you touch it ? yes.
Can it be tracked by Radar? Yes.
Is it Stealthy ? yes.
There, I just saved the MOD millions.🙄
Yept the UK is not just a laughing stock on Domestic matters but also when it comes to Defence 😟 🇬🇧
A business case? Are they for fucking real? I suppose it’s another army of pen pushers draining the budget so all is working as intended.
Isn’t this rather important, to inform how the jet can be used on a tactical level against different threats?
After the business case they will have to have a study, then a review, then a plan, then a revision of the plan, then a review of the revision of the plan, then the requirements analysis, an update of the requirements, a review of the requirements, a revision of the requirements, a review of the revision of the requirements …..