JSF ORIGINS
The story of Britain’s involvement in what
was originally known as the Joint Strike
Fighter (JSF) programme began with early
work by the Royal Navy to replace its old
Invincible-class aircraft carriers. The first
concepts were unveiled in 1997 in a bid
to persuade the newly elected Labour
government to approve them in its strategic
defence review. The Fleet Air Arm and
RAF would also need a replacement for the
ageing Sea Harrier FA2 and Harrier GR7s
then in service because they would not
last the life of the new carriers which are
projected to be use for 40 to 50 years.
The RAF was also looking to acquire
a true stealth or low observable manned
aircraft to augment its manned strike jets.
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) had
already funded the then British Aerospace
(BAe, now BAE Systems) to begin initial
studies into future vertical take-off and
landing (VTOL) aircraft and low observable
technology. At the same time, the US
military was also working on a family of
aircraft that could eventually replace a
large slice of the USAF, US Navy and USMarine Corps manned tactical aircraft
fleets. Pentagon chiefs wanted to replace
six aircraft types – AV-8B, F-16s, A-10s,
FA-18C/Ds, F-15Cs and F-15Es – with one
common airframe, modified to carry out
service-specific missions. By doing this,
they hoped to curb the rising prices of
combat aircraft.
The project’s genesis also coincided
with a surge of consolidation across the
global defence industry. Many iconic aircraft
companies of the Cold War era on bothsides of the Atlantic began to merge as
orders dried up after arms budgets were
slashed in the wake of the fall of the Berlin
Wall in 1989.
The British government and BAE
Systems were keen to join the new JSF
project. The MOD saw the jet as a strong
contender to fly from its new aircraft carriers.
For BAE Systems, participation was a way
to gain access to the lucrative US defence
market. The British government believed it
would help cement transatlantic defence co-
operation. This was the era of Tony Blair, the
UK Prime Minister of what was then called a
New Labour government, and US Democrat
President Bill Clinton the so-called ‘third way’,
a political ideology. The mould-breaking JSF
fitted the mood of the times.
Britain ultimately invested £2bn in
becoming a Level One partner with a vote
on the design specifications of the aircraft.
BAE Systems in turn became a Level One
partner with the prime contractor, Lockheed
Martin, and was guaranteed around 15%
of work on all the 6,000 aircraft that were
envisaged being built over the life of the
programme.http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 55Main photo: The arrival of F-35Bs at RAF
Marham in the summer of 2018 will mark the
start of new era in British military aviation.
Crown copyright 2016
Top right: Lightning IIs will form the strike
element of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen
Elizabeth. The Queen was due to commission
her namesake vessel on December 7 at
Portsmouth Naval Base. Crown copyright
2017
Above right: Delivery day for the RAF’s first
F-35B, ZM135, at Edwards AFB on January 13,- The aircraft was assigned to 17(R) Sqn
which undertakes operational testing and
conversion. Crown copyright 2015
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