Recommendation 13

The Department told us that it had plans to tackle these limitations. It is seeking opportunities within the global programme to accelerate the integration onto the F-35 of Spear 3 and Meteor, its preferred air to air weapon. The Joint Programme Office, which runs the global programme, has invited the UK programme to include a UK weapon in its so-called digital accelerator which it hopes will speed up delivery. In the meantime, the Department told us that as part of its Defence Investment Plan it is considering buying other weapons that are already available and integrated.28 It also told us that it is working with Italy to measure the stealth characteristics of UK aircraft, although this arrangement only accounts for two aircraft per year.29