§ Patrick MercerTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many of the short take off and vertical landing versions of the new Lockheed Martin F35s have been ordered by the Ministry of Defence; and what he expects the costs to be of(a) the individual aircraft and (b) the cost of the entire procurement project; [85455]
(2) if he will make a statement on the timetable for the short take-off and vertical landing versions of the Lockheed Martin F35s entering service with the Royal Navy and RAF; and if he expects this programme to remain within the Ministry of Defence's estimated budget. [85654]
§ Dr. MoonieThe current System Development and Demonstration Phase of the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme began in October 2001. We announced on 30 September this year that the Short Take-Off/Vertical Landing (STOVL) variant of the JSF 421W had been selected to meet our Future Joint Combat Aircraft (FJCA) requirement. The current planned United Kingdom in-service date is 2012.
In order to align with the US acquisition cycle, we do not expect to place orders for JSF aircraft before 2006. The average UK unit production cost of the STOVL variant of JSF is estimated to be around $50 million US.
The procurement cost for the FJCA programme, including certain spares and training facilities, is forecast to be up to £10 billion-working on a current planning assumption of 150 aircraft required. There is no reason to believe that the JCA programme will not remain within budget.