§ Dr. Julian LewisTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many joint strike fighters he intends to deploy on each future aircraft carrier; [139500]
(2) how many joint strike fighters would need to be purchased to support the deployment of 96 of such aircraft on the two future aircraft carriers; [139501]
(3) what maximum number of joint strike fighters could be simultaneously regularly deployed on the two future aircraft carriers, if the total purchase of joint strike fighters were reduced to 110 aircraft. [139502]
§ Mr. IngramWhile no final decisions have been taken, our current planning assumption is that we will acquire up to 150 Short Take Off and Vertical Landing variants of the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft which is sufficient to meet our Future Joint Combat Aircraft (FJCA) requirements.
FJCA is not meant solely to be deployed on our future carrier. It will be a truly joint aircraft capable of operating from both land and sea. The precise number of FJCA we would deploy on future carriers would be dependent on the mission to be undertaken, other rotary wing and surveillance assets being deployed, and other operations being undertaken concurrently.