HC Deb 24 October 2002 vol 391 cc428-9W
Mr. Gerald Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the specification for marinised carrier-based F35 aircraft will differ from that for land-based aircraft; and what the cost of marinisation will be. [75954]

Dr. Moonie

We have selected the Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) variant of the F35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to meet our Future Joint Combat Aircraft (FJCA) requirement. The STOVL variant of JSF was designed from the outset to be able to operate in the maritime environment. Under current plans the United Kingdom will be able to deploy any aircraft from within the FJCA fleet to the new carriers, as all STOVL JSF are intended to be equally capable of sea or land deployment.

The unit cost of the Conventional Take-Off and Landing (CTOL) variant of JSF, which is under development to meet primarily the requirements of the United States Air Force, may prove cheaper than STOVL. As this aircraft is not capable of operating from aircraft carriers, it was not considered as a solution to the FJCA requirement.

Mr. Gerald Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what payments he has made in previous financial years in respect of the design, development and manufacture of the F35 aircraft. [75950]

Dr. Moonie

The assessment phase of the Future Joint Combat Aircraft (FJCA) programme (formerly known as Future Carrier Borne Aircraft) began in November 1996 and finished in October 2001. During the phase we spent some £127 million in resource terms, with the competing Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) prime contractors (Lockheed Martin and Boeing). In addition approximately £8 million was spent during Financial Year 2001–2002 as part of the current System Development and Demonstration phase, which began in November 2001.

The year-by-year break down of expenditure is as follows:

Year Figure £M
1996–1997 9
1997–1998 47
1998–1999 34
1999–2000 21
2000–2001 16
2001–2002 8

Mr. Jenkin

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what factors are taken into consideration in the assessment of the requirement of the numbers of Joint Strike Fighter aircraft. [76368]

Dr. Moonie

Our current planning assumption is that up to 150 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) will be required to meet our through life Future Joint Combat Aircraft requirement. However, no final decision on numbers has yet been taken and detailed work is currently ongoing.

The decision will take into account a wide variety of factors including: the number of pilots required to man the aircraft on operations; the number of peace time flying hours required to train and maintain those pilots at combat ready status; expected rates of attrition; and the expected airframe life of JSF.