Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
51st Report - The UK’s F-35 stealth fighter capability
Published 31 Oct 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee The UK’s F-35 stealth fighter capability All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The F-35 programme suffers from personnel shortages across a range of occupations. A 2024 review of the programme, by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA, formerly the Infrastructure and Projects Authority), stated that shortages of suitably qualified engineers represented the biggest threat to delivering F-35 capability. These shortages have been exacerbated by the Department miscalculating how many engineers were needed per aircraft because it failed to account for staff taking leave and performing other tasks including guard duties.33 The National Audit Office report also found that the programme is short of cyber specialists, pilots and qualified flying instructors. In 2025 the programme only had five full-time flying instructors compared to its target of 16.34
From: Public Accounts Committee, 51st Report - The UK’s F-35 stealth fighter capability (HC 1232), 31 October 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifty-first Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 31 December 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifty-first report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations on the F-35, disagreeing on a F-35-specific workforce plan and on updating the Committee on Dual Capable Aircraft costs.
- On Full Operating Capability, the government agrees that criteria should take account of capability gaps and sustainment, with a target implementation date of November 2026.
- It agrees to write to the Committee by 30 April 2026 on increasing F-35 availability, saying the longer timeline is needed to draw on lessons from Carrier Strike Group 25.
- It disagrees with producing an F-35-specific recruitment and retention plan and will instead address the issue through the "ongoing RAF People Campaign".
- On RAF Marham accommodation, it will write by 31 May 2026 to advise "whether" the current timescale can be brought forward, after infrastructure requirements are reassessed following the Defence Investment Plan.