Experts told the House of Lords that Britain’s management of the F-35 fighter jet programme suffers from inconsistency, lack of engineers, and chronic under-resourcing.
Dr Sophy Antrobus of King’s College London said the UK’s unstable approach to the programme has undermined its standing with partners.
“The commitment to 138 but, contractually, only to 48 [aircraft] has not helped our reputation as a partner nation,” she said. She also cited the 2010 to 2012 switch from the F-35B to the F-35C and then back again as a decision that “had an impact at the time” and showed a lack of continuity in defence planning.
Antrobus added that ongoing US technical delays, such as the Block 3 software refresh, are affecting UK capability, though she said none are critical.
Dr Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute said that while the United States has faced its own delays, most of Britain’s shortfalls stem from domestic issues. “There are plenty of F-35 user nations, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, that have managed to get much more out of their fleets,” he said. “A lot of the limitations on the UK’s fleet capabilities are UK-based and UK-derived rather than programme-derived.”
He said similar problems plague other aircraft programmes such as Typhoon, Gripen E, and Rafale, all of which have suffered delays. The UK, however, has worsened its position by buying too few aircraft too slowly and underfunding engineering support.
“We have consistently struggled to fly them as much as we intended to,” Bronk said. “When we have sent a carrier strike group away for months, it has in essence shut down the production of new pilots.”
Asked whether the issue was a shortage of skilled engineers, Bronk replied, “Mostly, yes.” He warned that Britain’s lean operating model has created “huge fragility” within the system.
“Whenever you add additional commitments, ‘We’ll just do this exercise or this deployment’, there is no slack in the system and you end up completely overstressing it,” he said. “Output and ambition have consistently outstripped resourcing. It is the core problem at the heart of most of the UK Armed Forces’ issues.”
The MODs way cheap as we can get by on, same story year after year contract after contract. There will be no change just same old mess and penny pinching that in the long run costs way more. All these reviews in how buy kit and look after it. And it come down short term savings leading to long term delay and vast expense ever time, never going to change.
Love to proved wrong when we buy our next big buy but not holding my breath.
I would like to think attitudes and working practices are changing, and more funding and industrial capacity is certainly on the up. But I don’t think we will see these impacts for a good few years yet.
Martin, I think the expectation is that the next order will be for 27, of which 12 would be A models for both training and tactical nuclear strike. The placing of this order seems to be taking an absolute age.
Is there an un disclosed issue with the MOD having no money or it just a stop on buying any thing until the end of the year. Seem to not a lot going on ref the Defence review and avery thing is oh weait until later we are on it but with nothing happening. I under stand the Army has put in what kit it wants how many, etc but its a totl lack of any thing for well over a year.
A wasted year, if 2030 is be all date then time is ticking and the whaffle and delay is a disraction to other bigger issues?
We have always had SDRs then follow on equipment plans with budgets. So it’s nothing new.
Successive governments have allowed things to get so expensive in the UK, and Western military technology is so bloated, complicated and expensive, that increasing our defence budget by 50% today would not get us anything like the value of our normal defence budget of a few years ago.
Supposedly Britain is one of the least corrupt countries in the world. If corruption doesn’t exist at a severe level, how is it that our country is one of the richest in the world, but nobody has any money? How are defence spending and even things like infrastructure projects routinely over budget by billions, delayed by months or years, and once the project is complete it permanently needs time and money spending on it because of all the faults?
You do rase good points but our Welfare and health budget are out of control we az nation can not afford them but no one wants fix them it’s just chuck more money at it and hope it gets better. That is part the reason the other is to build any thing you have inquiry after inquiry. Nature inpact study, health and safety study. Etc etc ever project gets taken to court and drages out for years by eco people. We have the highest heating and manufacturing costs in West. What ever we make cost more to make it here.
As the song says …”Oh what a surprise”
Successive governments have allowed things to get so expensive in the UK, and Western military technology is so bloated, complicated and expensive, that increasing our defence budget by 50% today would not get us anything like the value of our normal defence budget of a few years ago.
Supposedly Britain is one of the least corrupt countries in the world. If corruption doesn’t exist at a severe level, how is it that our country is one of the richest in the world, but nobody has any money? How are defence spending and even things like infrastructure projects routinely over budget by billions, delayed by months or years, and once the project is complete it permanently needs time and money spending on it because of all the faults?
It’s very difficult to comment on corruption. I really don’t believe it is widespread, at laest in the U.K. What is widespread in politics and across the public sector is incompetence which has caused huge delays and a mind boogling waste of money.
It’s definitely going to be the case that much or even most of it will be incompetence rather than deliberate fraud, but it would be handy if the government could lead by example and make their bank accounts available for inspection, as the DWP is making strenuous efforts to do with the bank accounts of disabled people.
I agree with your comments. An old friend of mine who served on the “R” boats, now eighty is one of the poeple having to prove his benefit claim.
But but, we have nearly a whole carrier load, well, nearly being 2/3rds and and, one F35 can do the job of 5 Tornado, Harrier and all the other aircraft they replaced.
Is anyone actually awake in the house of Lords ?
No. They include Lords who happily waved away cuts in their time as Chiefs.
here here here here !
Same recurring theme.
HMG desperate to Granstand as a P5 and thus a major power, but won’t spend what’s necessary.
So the forces do their best, and another 2 billion needs saving this year…
I thought the defence budget was to increase? If it goes backwards then upwards again you’re basically back to where you started. Will the government look at the SSBN program if that’s taking too much of the Defence pie?
No.
As it forms a huge part of their priority for”defence” spending. The MIC and defence jobs.
It also forms their other priority for “defence” spending, Willy waving on the world stage being a nuclear power thus giving the UK P5 status. All the other P5 have it.
It will increase from 2027. But they’ve placed other funding items in it so in effect the military goes nowhere.
It’s all by design.
Our government is like Hyacinth Bucket, regards herself as a queen mother but drives around in the cheapest Rover. You see this thing all the time on the roads today, people driving like they’re the ultimate badass in BMW 1-series, Audi A1s and Merc A-class.
“Look at me, I’m a badass, driving around in my prestige car. Never mind it’s the cheapest, bottom spec and lowest tech tier.”
Essentially what we are saying is we run on a bare minimum shoe string and anything outside of a daily peace time schedule and we can’t cope.
The problem is, we never seem to think about how we come across to the rest of the world. While we’ve spent decades yelling to ourselves about how amazing we are, we’re falling behind in so many areas and we were once known as “perfidious Albion” because we would say one thing and immediate do something else.
We’ve had successive governments committing to defending the entire world while stripping military resources year after year. Now we’ve got Labour actually giving territory away and paying foreign governments to take it. It’s hard to imagine how we are seen by our allies and our Commonwealth, but our shrinking influence, and the fact the USA and now China are far bigger and more important partners to said allies, says it all really.
Meanwhile, as Russia and China grow in might, our education system is busy brainwashing kids into thinking WE are the aggressors and that everyone else in the world should be allowed to hate us. I just don’t get it.