Discussions with the F-35 Joint Program Office are ongoing regarding the procurement profiles and delivery schedule for Britain’s next batch of aircraft, according to a written answer published on Friday.
Luke Pollard, Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry, was responding to Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative MP for Huntingdon, who had asked whether negotiations with the multinational office had begun on the second tranche.
Mr Pollard said: “Discussions with the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) are ongoing regarding the procurement profiles and delivery schedule for the next batch of F-35 Lightning aircraft.”
Asked in a second question the same day whether an order for a further tranche would be placed before delivery of the next batch begins in the early 2030s, the minister referred back to an answer given in July, saying it remains extant.
That earlier reply, given to Stuart Anderson, the Conservative MP for South Shropshire, set out the position on numbers and timing. “The exact delivery profile and date of F-35 aircraft is subject to negotiation between the UK and multinational Joint Program Office, but the UK anticipates taking delivery of the next batch of F-35 aircraft from the early 2030s,” Mr Pollard said at the time.
The Joint Program Office manages the F-35 on behalf of all participating nations, running the contracting with Lockheed Martin as a single multinational effort rather than through separate national agreements. Partner countries place their requirements into a combined production schedule, and the office negotiates aircraft numbers, configuration and delivery slots across the whole programme.
A national decision on how many aircraft to buy and when they arrive cannot be settled unilaterally, because the slots available in any given production lot depend on what every other customer has ordered, and the aircraft are built to a common standard agreed across the partnership.
Are we still expecting a split batch between roughly 15 B’s and 12 A’s?