Lockheed Martin Lobbies For Larger UK F-35 Buy

LONDON–Lockheed Martin has claimed the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will deliver more economic benefit to the UK than any other current or future combat aircraft program.

Making its case to lawmakers ahead of the UK government’s Strategic Defense Review (SDR)–expected to report back by the middle of  2025–the company is claiming the program will have added some £45 billion ($58.3 billion) to the UK economy through 2046, when production of the aircraft is currently slated to end, and that UK industry and taxpayers will only benefit further as more nations top up their buys of the aircraft.

The manufacturer is hoping that the program’s economic impact now and in the future could help nudge the UK government to buy its full complement of 138 F-35s and continue its investment in the platform, rather than push forward with the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) initiative to build a new-generation crewed combat aircraft with Italy and Japan.

Limited funding means there is not enough money to afford both, and buying more F-35s remains an option to ministers should GCAP be deemed unaffordable.

“If you are limited on GDP expenditure ... you need to think about how wisely you spend that money,” Paul Livingston, Lockheed Martin UK’s chief executive, told journalists at the company’s F-35 industry roadshow held at the Royal United Services Institute here on Oct. 28.

The UK has taken delivery of 35 F-35s of the 48 it has on order. The UK defense ministry is negotiating the acquisition of a second tranche of aircraft that would grow the fleet to 74. A decision is expected after the SDR.

“The F-35 brings the largest benefit of any past, current, or future combat program in the UK,” Livingston said. “Every time a global customer anywhere in the world orders the F-35, Britain benefits.”

Some 500 UK businesses are currently involved in the F-35 supply chain, providing employment for some 20,000 people. Livingston would not say what could happen to UK industrial participation if London’s orders fall short of 138. But he noted there would be an obvious impact on aero engine maker Rolls-Royce, which makes the lift-fan for the aircraft’s short takeoff and vertical landing version that the UK has been acquiring.

But despite the claimed economic benefits, the F-35 program has been the subject of frustration among ministers in the previous Conservative administration. This is partly over the high cost of the aircraft’s operation, and also the glacial pace of UK weapon integration. Both the MBDA Meteor air-to-air missile and the Spear 3 mini cruise missile should now be in service. But delays with the F-35’s Block 4 software and Technology Refresh-3 (TR-3) avionics upgrade has pushed back integration of the two weapons onto the F-35 to the end of the decade. This leaves the UK aircraft without any form of stand-off air-to-ground weapon at a time of growing international tensions and increasing proliferation of ground-based air defenses.

One temporary solution, industry officials point out, could be Raytheon’s StormBreaker small diameter bomb. The UK could employ it from other national stocks if required, although the UK’s simulators currently are not equipped to train UK pilots with the weapon.

The UK looks set to begin receiving its first TR-3-equipped aircraft by year’s end. The first BK-36 will be assigned to the operational test and evaluation role in the U.S., while the 37th and second aircraft with TR-3 will be delivered to the UK. Four more TR-3s will be delivered in the spring, while the remainder will be delivered before the end of 2025, when the UK is expected to declare full operational capability (FOC) with the aircraft for land and naval operations.

The lack of integration of Meteor and Spear 3 is not a consideration for achieving FOC, Lockheed Martin officials insist.

Furthermore, TR-3 will also be able to be retrofitted to all but the earliest of the aircraft delivered to the UK, Mike Shoemaker Lockheed Martin’s vice president for F-35 Customer Programs, told journalists. He said there were efforts underway to ensure that older “legacy aircraft that make up the majority of the fleet” that cannot be upgraded to TR-3 would continue to be supported.

Industry participants in the GCAP initiative are expected to fight back with a new economic impact report by PwC, an accounting firm.

It is expected to say that the UK element of GCAP, referred to as Tempest, will make a £37 billion contribution to the UK economy between 2025-2070 and support around 16,000 jobs per year for the next 10 years.