Recommendation 11

Although the F-35 is significantly superior to any previous UK aircraft, the Department has yet to achieve the capability or availability that it wants.19 Most significant is the lack of the standoff weapon.20 This will limit the UK’s ability to conduct certain missions in contested environments.21 The Department also told us that it had delayed building its sovereign Air Signature Assessment Facility (ASAF) to measure the stealth 12 Q 83 13 Q 81 14 Qq 88, 109 15 Q 104 16 Q 85 17 C&AG’s Report, para 1.21 18 Q 87 19 Qq 85, 104 20 Q 88 21 C&AG’s Report, para 1.11 8 characteristics of UK F-35 aircraft.22 Furthermore, aircraft availability is poor. The UK F-35 fleet achieved approximately one-third of the MoD target for the time it was able to fly all its required missions in 2024, and achieved only two-fifths of the level of availability of the global F-35B fleet between October 2024 and January 2025.23 The Department acknowledged that it was not getting the F-35 availability it wanted.24