Shots have been fired in a damning new report targeting the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the acquisition of American F-35 fighter jets for the UK. The military aircraft programme, which has so far only acquired 37 out of a planned 138 F-35s, is predicted to cost £57billion by 2069.
But now a new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has eviscerated the MoD for what it calls “short-termism, complacency and miscalculation” over the project meant to defend the nation. The withering assessment of defence chiefs also highlighted Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement in June claiming Britain would purchase an F-35 variant capable of carrying US nuclear weapons. The PAC report said there did not appear to be an operational timeframe or cost projection for this to be carried out.
The PAC report lays out a pattern of short-term decision-making from the MoD impacting the F-35’s capability, availability to fly and value for money. Among the biggest points highlighted include a delay in investment in the facility which assesses the F-35’s stealth capability. In the short-term, £82million was saved by 2024-25, but inflation from building later will have cost MoD £16million more than that by 2031-32.
In a statement the PAC report also noted that in 2010, the MoD chose to delay the delivery of some aircraft to make short-term financial savings, reducing the number of aircraft available today – a situation exacerbated by a delay of seven aircraft by a year in 2020 for financial reasons.
It added that the programme also suffers from an unacceptable shortage of engineers, which poses an obstacle to the jets flying more often. While this shortage reflects wider challenges across the armed forces, the report climed the MoD worsened the situation for F-35s by miscalculating how many engineers would be needed per plane, through failing to take into account staff taking leave and performing other tasks.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “Making short-term cost decisions is famously inadvisable if you’re a homeowner with a leaky roof, let alone if one is running a complex fighter jet programme – and yet such decisions have been rife in the management of the F-35.
“During our inquiry, the MoD told us that they viewed these kinds of decisions costing the taxpayer many millions more in the long-term than the money saved in the short term, as a ‘conventional consequence’ of budget management. This is exactly the sort of attitude that our Committee exists to challenge.
“There are basic lessons here that the MoD has been worryingly slow to learn. Its appraisal of the F-35’s whole-life cost is unrealistic, which it currently gives as at almost £57billion through to 2069.”
Sir Geoffrey added: “But this figure does not include costs for personnel, fuel and infrastructure, which the MoD will struggle to operate a successful programme without. Moreover, the MoD is due to declare the jet’s full operating capability, despite unresolved personnel shortages.”
PAC also said the state-of-the-art jets also lacked the ability to attack ground targets from a safe distance until the early 2030s, and that the Chief of the Defence Staff said this worried him the most.
It was claimed the F-35 was the “best fighter jet” the UK had possessed, but Sir Geoffrey concluded: “If it is to be wielded in the manner in which it deserves, the MoD must root out the short-termism, complacency and miscalculation in the programme identified in our report.”
An MoD spokesperson said: “Many of the decisions referenced in the report were taken under the previous government, and we have set out plans to tackle historic issues with procurement, infrastructure, recruitment, and skills through the Strategic Defence Review.”