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F-35 LIGHTNING II UK Leadership
run and manage the theatre airspace and
deep target attack functions together and
we’ve got true synergy. We began a series
of trials called Babelfish – we are up to
Babelfish IV – and that is intrinsic ISR at
work; testing information exchange between
fourth- and fifth-generation platforms. This
ties in the Air Warfare Centre, as well as Nos
17 and 41 Test and Evaluation Squadrons.
A lot of observers talk about data exchange
from fifth to fourth generation. For me,
it’s about everyone working together with
information flowing in any direction. We
must be able to move information around
the battlespace where it is most needed.Lightning milestones
For the UK, F-35B IOC gives us a full
warfighting-standard aircraft. The platform
itself is at Block 3F standard, which means
we have capability to employ the Paveway
IV precision-guided bomb, AIM-
AMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-
to-Air Missile) and the AIM-132 ASRAAM
(Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile).
Those are weapons that have been cleared
and qualified under the System Development
and Demonstration (SDD) phase.
As we work towards IOC we are ensuring
all the weapons are cleared for us to use.Development flight-testing under SDD is
complete, and now we are in the process
of certification to enable us to commence
operational testing so that we understand
the tactics, techniques and procedures.
The UK will have nine aircraft available
for operations by the end of this year out of a
total fleet of 17 that will be in our possession
by then (with one aircraft still to follow).
Some aircraft will remain in the US for
training and some will be in maintenance
and upgrade to the latest software standard.
Five aircraft will remain at the US Marine
Corps’ training unit VMFAT-501 at MCAS
Beaufort, South Carolina, until we stand
up No 207 Squadron, our Operational
Conversion Unit (OCU), next July. Three
will also remain at the operational test unit,
No 17 TES at Edwards AFB, California.
We have approval for the next 30
aeroplanes already and they are also going
onto contract with Lockheed Martin to
give the UK a fleet of 48 short take-off
and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35Bs.
Full operational capability (FOC) is our
next goal, which will be around 2023. The
Strategic Defence and Security Review
(SDSR) of 2015 spelled out the plan for
two operational squadrons plus an OCU
by that time. 809 Naval Air Squadron
stands up in April 2023 and will be
fully operational by December of that
year. At that point we will be able to run
concurrent operations in two locations- that is the main milestone for FOC.
Of course, it doesn’t end there. We will
purchase more aircraft after that; indeed, I
have approval right now for some aircraft
to be delivered after 2023 as we continue to
grow the support behind those squadrons. In
addition, we have an additional 90-aircraft
requirement to give the final total fleet
of 138. SDSR gave us a Joint Combat
F-35B BF-02 flying with a full
external UK weapons fit of Paveway
IV and ASRAAM on November 13,- Lockheed Martin/Layne Laughter