F-35 Procurement inquiry

Published 26 February 2018.

The Government welcomes the Committee's report and states it "remains committed to delivering the F-35 programme on time and within budget", while clarifying the SDSR 15 commitment on 138 aircraft.

• On a MADL gateway translation node, it does not commit to procurement. Further Babel Fish trials will form "the basis of a cost/benefit analysis for consideration in the MoD's annual investment planning process".
• On costs, it disputes that the commitment is open-ended and "strongly refutes any suggestion that there is a lack of transparency". It gives a cost estimate of circa £13 billion for the first 48 aircraft and support to 2048.
• It maintains that "speculative estimates" for the remaining 90 aircraft "would prove to be inaccurate and misleading", as their timing, variant and budget are yet to be determined.
• It says it "would be content to provide six-monthly updates" to the Committee, "within the constraints of classification and commercial sensitivity". It also acknowledges that sending the ministerial letter only to Government-side Members was "a regrettable oversight" and will distribute such letters to all Members in future.

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