UK May Cut F-35 Order By Half

Britain’s Defence Secretary Philip Hammond yesterday hinted that the UK may not now buy 90 F-35 jets as it has originally planned.

Hammond has now pledged that the first 48 aircraft on order at a cost of around £100m each would be bought to service the new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers from 2020. But he would not commit to a further 90 planes, which had originally been proposed. 

"It's dependent on politics, money and the state of the world, but it's also dependent on what is not yet clearly known, what the mix between manned fighter jets and unmanned aircraft is going to be,’ he was quoted as saying by Sky News.

Hammond added there were two trains of thought, one suggesting an 80/20 split of manned to unmanned aircraft in future, the other suggesting the exact opposite. 

He said the final decision would determine how many manned F-35s the UK could buy.