The UK’s frontline F-35 stealth fighter jets are unable to carry their intended advanced missiles and are being forced to rely on stopgap weapons with limited range, according to a new report by the National Audit Office (NAO).
The NAO warns that serious delays in integrating Britain’s bespoke Spear 3 air-to-surface missile and the Meteor long-range air-to-air missile are undermining the operational effectiveness of the F-35 fleet, despite nearly £11 billion already spent on the programme. Originally expected to be ready by the end of 2024, both weapons will now not be fully available until at least the early 2030s.
The report reveals the UK is “far behind its planned delivery dates for integrating Spear 3 and Meteor onto the F-35.” The delays are attributed to underperformance by suppliers, lack of skilled personnel, and the UK’s dependency on the US-led Joint Program Office (JPO) to provide access to test infrastructure and aircraft.
Spear 3, being developed as a separate major programme, has suffered from supplier issues and inadequate commercial incentives for on-time delivery. A critical component from the US has still not been delivered. Meanwhile, the Meteor missile – already in service on other platforms – has been held back by a lack of integration slots within the JPO’s crowded testing schedule.
The Ministry of Defence has not fully mitigated the capability gaps created by these setbacks, say the NAO. At present, the UK’s F-35s are relying on the Paveway IV for air-to-surface strikes and the AIM-120D for air-to-air engagements. But the NAO report makes clear that Paveway IV lacks the range required for standoff targeting, placing aircraft at greater risk in contested airspace.
“UK F-35 aircraft cannot currently perform all missions against ground-based targets at a safe distance,” the NAO states.
To close the gap, the F-35 programme team has requested funding for US-made Small Diameter Bombs as a more capable interim solution. However, the MoD has yet to commit resources to this proposal. While the AIM-120D offers a credible air-to-air option for now, the report cautions this is only effective “as long as they are available in sufficient numbers.”
The failure to arm the UK’s most advanced combat aircraft with its intended missile suite comes amid broader concerns over the F-35 programme’s delayed full operating capability, maintenance backlogs, and limited flying hours. The aircraft’s advanced design is not being matched by operational readiness, with the MoD now targeting full capability only by the end of 2025 – two years behind schedule.
As the NAO’s head Gareth Davies said, “The capability benefits are not being fully realised due to delays, infrastructure gaps and personnel shortages.” Without urgent investment in interim weapons and faster progress on Spear 3 and Meteor integration, the UK risks fielding a stealth fighter that cannot deliver on its intended warfighting role.
Another shocker but predictable as the US will always favour it’s own weaponry and integration ( for anyone other than Israel).
Small diameter bombs can’t be that expensive , and has a range of 60 miles.
With all the money we waste in that country that seems a scandal. Unless there is pressure from UK industry not to threaten UK products.
A youtube video says a 2025 SDB II costs $240k
Getting shafted by the US again. This is why we need to align with Europe, where the power share is more balanced.
That doesn’t always work perfectly either!
Thing is who controls the aircraft software these days?
Typhoon we can do as we please.
F35B we gave to be careful not to demand a bespoke dead end.
That example seems to contradict your first sentence. Equally Brimstone and Meteor work, and have for years on European joint platforms and yet not on US platforms even when we are a supposed Tier 1 colleague. No collaborative effort is perfect for each individual member it’s always on a scale, but it’s like Apples and Oranges compared to dealing with the US.
Depends what was agreed with each program as a partner I guess. Though as you can see with FCAS that can still break down. But like Supportive Bloke said, with Typhoon we have better control.
Yes – so long as yje French lead….
Yes – so long as the French lead….
The French didn’t lead on Meteor yet…
We worked well together on the Storm Shadow 😉
And we would be pleased to do more. Though, we will need you to complete a domestic plateform you can handle of as you need. The nice new plane you are making would be a giant step in the right direction!
Because working with the French is so much more desirable. As the Germans can testify.
This would be the French who are demanding 80% workshare on the Franco German pretend fighter that will likely never be built?
That Europe??
Would you trust the Europeans to supply. I certainly would not. The Belgians in particular are flaky to say the least. Holland and Germany not far behind. The French well let’s not go there.
AGM-158 is currently being g integrated onto the F35 (to be carried externally) and flight tests already conducted on F35B with a missile under each wing. Why don’t we simply buy this e extremwly effective weapon off the shelf and give our F35B an enhanced capability it needs?
At this point the RAF or FAA couldn’t give a rays arse were its coming from, the F35B need more ‘bite’ right now.
So suck it up, buy or lease whatever is needed from the US until the 2030’s.
We are severely compromised if they are called into action at the moment, with little choice but to penetrate layered and sophisticated air defence systems and virtually overfly a target to strike it.
So just get it done…
Learn the lesson and move on.
Who, I would like to know, is responsible for signing off on being an F35 Tier 1 partner, without access to the source code???
Which fu#king genius is responsible for that?
Annnnd so we see the US Industrial strategy of “fuck over your allies so they invest in our MIC” pays off.
Absolutely.utely, with this programme all roads lead back to LM and everyone else getting shafted.
“Switching to guns”.
Oh hang on !
Anyone else need a better rationale for buying more Typhoons as a stop gap measure until Tempest?
So basically we don’t have the far more capable UK weapons on F35 because UK industry has been rolled over by US interests… essentially a really good reason to buy typhoon and focus on tempest.
We do need to to be really clear with ourselves.. because the U.S. is, alliances are alliances nothing more, they serve a purpose and are at best based around enlightened self interest and at worse fear and weakness… I fear that the NATO alliance is moving to a very bad case of fear and weakness.
The U.S. has made it clear it’s not selling anyone the full capability version of its six generation fighter…because alliances change. The UK ans Europe need to start adopting a stronger together but strong enough alone policy and that means supporting its own military industrial complex..
We’re stuck with the F35B for the carriers but it does highlight the need to order more Typhoons and get Tempest in decent numbers.
The Typhoon is now getting old and will not cut it against 5/6 opponents. We need to get more F35B and intigate our weapons on them. We are the only nation outside the USA that has access to the F35 source code, we should use this access to DIY. Israel has done that by using its own code on the plane the F35i is an example of not living with US games but taking their destiny into their own hands. If the US won’t put our kit on our planes then we should do it.
Far too late for that, you can’t just start such a programme now and expect it to be quicker than the admittedly snails pace of the US. The F-35 software suite is a nightmare 90s original design philosophy and forking it for our specific use will only add to cost and complexity the longer it diverges from the US orthodox version. Thankfully next gen 5th or 6th Gen aircraft in development are exploiting a far more modern software philosophy that sandboxes sensors and weapons from the flight software making integrations (in theory at least) fundamentally easier and quicker to integrate because you don’t have to do thorough retesting and potential upgrading of every part of the software when you change just one aspect.
The US is relying on updated F-15s to do the donkey work, indeed the Israelis rely on far less capable versions to do the do key work too. The Typhoon with latest mods and the new radar would be a good bit better than those and if using along side it Meteor, Spear 3 and other longer range weapons arguably makes up quite a lot in stand off capability that the F-35 loses by having to operate much closer to danger especially as its particular stealth capabilities become more countered by peer counter measures. Even the US is deeply concerned about the F-35s range and limited stand off weapons fit.
The separation between flight critical and mission critical software is already implemented in the JAS Gripen.
Agreed, if we can do it ourselves then great but for whatever reason we can’t or won’t. Typhoon is getting on but so is the F16 and that’s doing a useful job in Ukraine. Typhoon will still be useful for us in many areas and crucially we need to maintain jobs in manufacturing, which sadly it looks as if Labour are letting go with the recent closure announcement.
Yes – I wold have liked to see our 24 batch 1 planes replaced with new batch 5s. I think the new radar 2 will be a great addition to Typhoon and should be fitted to all the Typhoons. Hopefully some folk will get jobs on Tempest but that is still a way off.
Any chance we could extend the glide range of Paveway in such a way that it retains its certification? Just asking.
There is a JDAM-ER 500lb with a wing kit. I wondered if the wing kit would work with Paveway IV?
Yes, that’s the kind of idea I was thinking of. Another thought was a Storm Shadow ER – an extra 1-200 miles of stand off range ?
Why on earth haven’t we specified that any F35s bought by the UK should be able to carry UK missiles instead of allowing ourselves to be stuck with aircraft that aren’t fit for purpose? We should order more Typhoons, stop orders for F35s until we are allowed to modify them or they come already modified. The current situation costs us more for an inferior product!
Indeed it’s like fitting a Mercedes with a Trabant engine, looks lovely doing the rounds at shows, but ask it to perform and the limitations become more than clear and one starts to wonder if a Ford would have been the better bet overall.
The problem is the government / MoD were silly enough to build the aircraft carriers all around a single aircraft – the F35B. We have no alternative, so it’s a bit of an empty threat if we say we won’t buy any more F35B’s. And even if we refitted the carriers with traps we’ll probably still need to purchase American as we don’t have a naval version of Typhoon or Tempest.
We have alternatives. Drones, helicopters, enough F35s for the immediate job while providing a platform that enhances the capacity of our allies – better to have our own, but only on our terms and that meet our requirements!
We need order 50 more typhoon take a break
f35 until it supports all weapons
My real concern is that by the time they are fitted Meteor and Spear 3 while they look rather better than current options actually will fall short of what’s required by the early thirties. I’m not even convinced that Spear 3 is looking that healthy an option even now, depending on how far one can degrade air defences. Meteor is already under a proposed upgrade path and likely replacement (or serious upgrade) by the early thirties to remain at the forefront of air to air missiles and when the US will sport in numbers a very long range if decidedly oversized air to air missile equivalent to what the Chinese already have available. So one asks the question will whatever long range missile we are bringing into operation post 2030 be it enhanced Meteor+ or a replacement be able to be mounted on the F-35 or will we see the situation again that it will on long in the tooth Typhoons until Tempest comes into service while we see Spear-3 pretty much in the same position as we see now with Paveway, does a job but short of what’s truly needed, and thus more US missiles we have to be acquired to really make F-35 more effective than it is today. Feels like a very circular scenario I fear.
Order 3x Squadrons worth of Typhoons now. Press on with Tempest. Convert cheap old airliners to be “arsenal” planes and link to expanded AWACS fleet. Come up with a low-cost trainer that can also serve as a linked dogfight/Meteor launch platform to give extra mass. But most importantly, ditch reliance on American, French/German design and industry and go it alone with development of air-launch weapons in the 300 to 2,00 mile range category. Stop ponsing about with free-fall or short-range stand-off rubbish.
Germany also bought a package of US weapons for the F35: Amraams, AIM9X, although they have the IRIS-T and are a Meteor partner too. For Germany, this is considerably less critical than for the UK, though, because the German mission for the F35 is Nato, nuclear only, and this is requiring US authorisation anyway.
Even if Spear 3 were on UK F-35B today, we would still need a heavier stand off missile, JSM or JASSM or similar. On the naval front, Lockheed Martin Extensible Launch System (ExLS) not only launches CAMM, but also Hellfire & JAGM. If Spear 3 could be launched from ExLS , that would give RN ships land attack capabilities. There is talk that F-35 may finally get drop tanks. That should help range issues.
Absolute effing farce!
I think the moral of the story is to never buy American again. Certainly not complex aircraft or weapon systems.
Yes, let’s just pay double for inferior platforms with similar integration issues caused by France or Germany instead…
Better than keeping kissing Merkin ass just to be patronised, patted on the head and expected to do as you’re told by “benevolent” Uncle Sam 🤡💩👎🏾
Is that before of after the extended purchases of the F35A?
All of this has been discussed on here ad infinitum, with many viewpoints that seemingly change over time, or which way the wind in blowing.
We put all of our eggs into the F35B Basket due to the carrier requirement , and the rest , as they say , is history.
Slow procurement , non existent UK weapons integration , changes of mind and/or ambiguity regards strategy for both , both carriers , and/or the strategic platforms that will fly off them.
Despite all of this we now decide to procure F35A’s instead of F35B’s in order to cow-tow to (E)NATO (whatever that may mean) and NATO -i.e. the French and the Yanks, to gain some sort of perceived Kudos , which will apparently enable more trading (military or otherwise). Excused by a nonsensical assertion its to augment ‘nuclear deterrent’ , to the obvious (maybe short term?) detriment of CSG capability.
This is the joke that just keeps on giving.
I understand the frustration surrounding the delays in integrating SPEAR 3 and Meteor onto the F-35. Lockheed Martin certainly deserves some of the criticism, given the persistent issues and rising costs that have plagued the F-35 programme. However, it’s also understandable why UK-specific weapons haven’t been given higher priority.
For years, the UK was expected to purchase 138 F-35s to replace the Harrier and, to some extent, the Tornado. That ambition has been watered down, and the official line shifted to “over the lifetime of the programme.” Meanwhile, the Typhoon has increasingly taken on the strike role that the F-35 was initially intended to dominate—rather than paying for a replacement.
Yes, the UK has permanent staff embedded in the Joint Programme Office (JPO), but their influence is naturally limited when it comes to accelerating integration timelines for bespoke UK weapons particularly when only two UK squadrons are currently flying the jet.
This also raises a legitimate question: was it even worth investing billions of pounds into developing advanced munitions like SPEAR 3 and Meteor if we were never going to commit to a substantial F-35 fleet? I would argue yes but only if we ensure those weapons are further developed for Tempest.
#Day27
The solution here is to avoid US reliance – it’s really that simple.
Tier 1 partner, what exactly did that get us apart from a bigger bill?