Recommendation 18

The Department told us that each plane currently costs approximately $100 million and that it expected this price to fall by 13% over the next three tranches.46 Nevertheless, this basic purchase price is just one cost element, and other costs must be taken into the reckoning, including the UK’s original investment to be a Tier 1 partner with the US, and the costs of weapons integration, sustainment and the supporting infrastructure. The Department could only provide us with a broad breakdown of the estimated whole life cost of the Lightning II programme and asserted that it would be misleading to provide a specific per-aircraft cost. We remain concerned with the Department’s lack of clarity on these costs because it must find additional funding both to bridge the £7.9 billion funding- gap for the 48 aircraft it is committed to buying, and to purchase the additional jets it acknowledges it will require.47 Delays to the Crowsnest radar system