High price, low flight: UK's 11 billion F-35 jets are mostly sitting ducks

Britain's much-valued F-35 fighter jet fleet, once the backbone of the UK's firepower, is now suffering from a chronic lack of people and under-delivery of the infrastructure, weapons, and support needed to realise its full potential. A harsh reality is that it can now use only one-third of its intended missions, and the remaining two-thirds are grounded.

A report from the National Audit Office reveals the details of the Royal Air Force’s F-35 Lightning II program. It states that the fleet completed only 37 per cent of planned flying missions in 2023-24, a number far below the intended target of 50 per cent. As the geopolitical tension continues to rise, this has raised serious questions about the UK's air combat capabilities.

£11billion machines, rarely airborne

The UK has so far acquired 38 F-35 aircraft costing around £11billion. Despite the massive investment, most of them are struggling to get off the runway due to a lack of engineers, particularly at supervisory levels. Only 58 per cent of the required strength is filled. Two-thirds of the time, aircraft were not “full mission capable,” primarily due to personnel shortages and a slow supply of spare parts. The report also said that there was a significant gap in cybersecurity personnel, essential for a platform with complex software and mission data requirements, and these requirements are unlikely to be met before 2028. The monthly flying hours for most pilots were reduced from 10 to just 7.5 hours.

“The F-35 programme brings significant new capability to the UK armed forces, but the Ministry of Defence is not yet getting the expected flying hours from the aircraft,” said Gareth Davies, head of the NAO.

There is even more delay in integrating the British-made missile system. Despite several promises, the F-35 lacks Meteor air-to-air missiles and SPEAR 3 precision strike weapons, leaving it reliant on basic bombs.

There is a huge discrepancy in the quoted figure by the MoD as a possible cost for the whole program. MoD publicly pegs the program’s cost at £18.8 billion, but NAO estimates that it could balloon to £71 billion over the F-35’s lifetime

“We are addressing supply chain challenges, boosting engineer recruitment, and remain confident of achieving full operational capability by 2025,” said the MoD spokesperson.

Britain has committed to purchasing 138 F-35s in total from US defence contractor Lockheed Martin. The full planned fleet of 138 aircraft is expected to remain in service until 2069. But it remains to be seen if F-35 fighter jets will fly off the ground with their full might when the situation arises.