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Britain’s public spending watchdog has warned of “shortcomings” within the nation’s F-35 fighter jet programme, with delays, low pilot flying hours and personnel shortages undermining the fleet’s effectiveness.
The 37-strong fleet final yr met solely one-third of the Ministry of Defence’s goal to carry out all required missions, the National Audit Office mentioned on Friday.
Plans to equip the plane with vital weapons, together with UK-developed missiles, have been pushed again till the 2030s, it famous.
The “mixed shortcomings of the worldwide and UK F-35 stealth fighter plane programme — together with delays, lower-than-expected availability, infrastructure gaps and personnel shortages — are undermining the armed forces’ warfighting functionality”, in line with the watchdog.
The F-35, which is made by America’s Lockheed Martin, is the world’s solely superior, long-range, stealth fighter.
The NAO’s report comes at a delicate time for the federal government, which is underneath strain to arrange its armed forces for contemporary warfare whereas on the similar time bolstering the UK’s industrial resilience.
The damning evaluation of the warfighting capabilities of the UK’s F-35 plane additionally revealed the MoD has already spent £11bn on the programme — greater than it anticipated in 2013.
The NAO warned the prices over the lifetime of the programme, together with non-equipment bills akin to personnel and infrastructure, might be as excessive as £71bn — considerably exceeding the division’s public forecast of £18.76bn.
The programme presents “considerably improved functionality and appreciable financial advantages to the UK”, mentioned Gareth Davies, head of the NAO.
“However the functionality advantages should not being absolutely realised on account of delays, infrastructure gaps and personnel shortages,” he added.
The MoD mentioned the programme “continues to function inside its authorized funds and the UK may have two full squadrons of F-35 fighter jets prepared for deployment by the top of this yr”.
The UK has 38 F-35 fighter jets which function off the Royal Navy’s two plane carriers, though solely 37 are presently energetic. One jet has been stranded at an airport in southern India on account of mechanical points.
Britain has dedicated to purchasing 138 F-35s in whole, together with the not too long ago announced purchase of 12 F-35A jets which can be able to carrying nuclear bombs.
By committing early to the US-led programme, the UK has benefited industrially and is the only prime tier companion, in line with the NAO. British corporations manufacture at the very least 15 per cent by worth of all F-35s, leading to £22bn of contracts for home producers.
However the delays, partly additionally on account of issues with the worldwide programme that has come underneath fireplace within the US over its spiralling prices, imply the MoD expects to have the ability to declare full working functionality of the jets on the finish of 2025 — two years later than deliberate.
The report “doesn’t make for significantly reassuring studying”, mentioned Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for navy aerospace at The Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research.
The “extended delays in integrating key UK weapons on to the plane, that’s the Meteor prolonged vary air-to-air missile, and the SPEAR 3 medium-to-long vary stand-off missile, additionally adversely have an effect on the operational effectiveness of the UK plane”, he mentioned.
The watchdog’s price calculations had been primarily based on totally different underlying assumptions, defence officers mentioned.
The MoD’s estimate for the programme’s whole-life prices solely relate to the gear and assist bills related, they mentioned. The NAO’s calculation, in the meantime, relies on the gear and assist prices and an assumption across the personnel, gasoline and associated infrastructure prices deemed to be related to the F-35.
