The UK Defence Secretary John Healey remained tight-lipped on what the mixed-variant F-35 Lightning fleet will look like during a Defence Committee hearing on 2 July 2025.
He only intimated that the 12 F-35A conventional take-off and landing aircraft that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it planned to order last week will “start being delivered before the end of the decade,” leaving open the prospect that the multirole aircraft will start to be delivered from 2029 at the latest.
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Likewise, Healey maitained that there is no fixed timeline for the delivery of the entire fleet of 138 planned aircraft, nor is there a precise balance set out between the As and the Bs.
With no definitive timeline, the direction of the UK’s future combat air capability is shrouded in mystery and thus beyond scrutiny. After ten months of waiting for priorities in the Strategic Defence Review, published at the start of June, the Defence Secretary said that the Committee will have to wait several more months for specifics to come in the Defence Investment Plan in the autumn.
This uncertainty comes at a time when some defence experts anticipate a conflict between Russia and Nato by 2028.
As it stands
Currently, the UK only operate 37 units of the B variant – the short take-off and vertical landing aircraft based at RAF Marham in Norfolk – jointly operated between the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force (RAF).
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By GlobalDataLast week, when the MoD announced the planned procurement of the A variant during the Nato Summit, the government emphasised the nuclear role the aircraft will bring to the RAF, a capability that the B variant lacks.
When asked about the potential reduction in the British industrial contribution to F-35 with the selection of the A variant, Healey specified that “it would be broadly similar” to that of the B variant, adding that this is subject to negotiations. Nevertheless, “the cost of the As will be around 20% less than the Bs.”
However, another committee member, Calvin Bailey, pointed to Rolls-Royce’s work in supplying the lift fan for the vertical take-off capability of the B variant, something a conventional take-off A variant lacks.
