Doubts over delivery of Lockheed Martin F-35 jets
Britain’s next generation of fast jets are less likely to be delivered as planned because of concerns over simulators, software and weapons.
The Ministry of Defence has lowered a confidence rating on the delivery of the F-35 Lightning II programme to amber/red, from amber in June, the government’s spending watchdog said. The change is significant for a project costing billions of pounds. The F-35B jets are due to fly from the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers, with the first aircraft due to operate from HMS Queen Elizabeth by the end of 2020.
The National Audit Office (NAO) produced a three-page note for the parliamentary public accounts committee, which is examining the government’s management of the overall programme to deliver aircraft carriers and F-35 jets. The “supplementary memorandum” was published yesterday afternoon.
The MoD told the NAO that the programme remained on time and on budget but the official in charge had revised his “delivery confidence”, it said. “This reflected concerns that simulators to train UK pilots would not be representative of the UK aircraft standard, that there were delays to providing UK-specific software programming, and that the schedule to deliver the UK weapons programme required further work,” the NAO said........