GOV/MIL Lockheed Martin highlights UK benefits of the F35 program

[Richard]

Lockheed Martin highlight UK benefits of F-35 programme

Lockheed Martin has detailed the current and future economic benefits to the UK of the F-35 stealth fighter programme stating gains to date of around £9bn, a figure which would continue to rise through to the late-2030s

www.key.aero

4th September 2021
NEWS
Lockheed Martin has detailed the current and future economic benefits to the UK of the F-35 stealth fighter programme stating gains to date of around £9bn (US$12.3bn), a figure which would continue to rise through to the late-2030s.

Presenting an operational and industry update on the F-35 programme at the recent Defence Security Exhibition International event in London, senior officials from Lockheed Martin stated that the programme also helped to sustain 20,000 jobs in the UK.

Government and industry alike are keen to play up the amount of work the UK performs on every F-35 aircraft produced, with participation from across the sector. UK MOD/Crown copyright


The programme is a lynchpin of the country’s defence aerospace sector with a purported 15% of each aircraft being manufactured in the UK, including the aft fuselage and structural components (BAE Systems, vertical fins and horizontal stabilisers (BAE Systems), STOVL three-bearing swivel nozzle (Rolls-Royce), STOVL roll ducts and lift fan (Rolls-Royce), among other participation from companies such as Martin Baker (ejection seat).

Pointing to these benefits during a briefing at the recent DSEI exhibition and conference in London, UK, Gary North, VP of customer requirements at Lockheed Martin, said the F-35 programme would bring benefits in excess of £40bn to the UK through the 2007-2038 timeframe.

The UK government has been keen to highlight the benefits that such programmes bring to the UK, with a number of planned or current defence projects pointing to their own credentials and in-country gains across industry.

In May PricewaterhouseCoopers released a report into the UK’s Future Combat Air System programme, also known as Tempest, estimating contributions of £26.2bn to the UK economy between 2021 and 2050. In addition, wider combat air activities of leading UK-based companies driving the programme were expected to contribute a combined £100.1bn to the country’s economy and support 62,000 jobs per year between 2021 and 2050.

The PwC report stated the programme would make up an increasing share of the partners’ UK combat air activities and that of their supply chains, rising from around 12% today to nearly 50% of economic contribution by 2050.

Regarding potential export opportunities in Europe, where the F-35 recently saw victory in the Swiss next-generation fighter programme, North said that there was interest “from three or four other countries” in the region. The type is a contender in Finland’s future fighter requirement, with ongoing legacy combat air platform replacement programmes in the Czech Republic and Greece.


By Richard Thomas

 

[Housecarl]

That's the economic picture, and it is very much a "snap shot" of a moving object. It does not however get into the nitty gritty of combat effectiveness nor serviceability.

 

[Trouble]

Such a loser of an an aircraft, who cares how many jobs it created. Our reliance on tech and "stealth" will be our undoing in the upcoming global conflagration.

 

[jed turtle]

Without an actual war how does one realize that your nation’s entire defense establishment has been spending the nation’s barely affordable resources on the equivalent of a buggy-whip?

How do you learn that your leaders are spending money you haven’t even earned yet for something your enemy stole the secrets of last year and has the “solution” to already?

meanwhile the people are mis-educated, mis-sheltered, mis-guided about their health, and coerced to “keep up with the Joneses” through constant Madison Avenue adverts, forever raising the bar for achieving “happiness”...

imho, if one is not somehow, someway living surrounded by a natural world (fields, forests, farms, seas, ranches, etc,) one is cut off from the world that God created for our peace and happiness.

 

[Red Baron]

The problems with a single engine stealth fighter?

- You're down to one engine before you even take off.

- You're almost out of fuel before you even take off.

- You're not stealthy if you carry external stores.

- No redundancy for long range over water missions with a single engine.

 

[Richard]

I agree with the criticisms of the aircraft, wasn't actually recommending it, just saying the UK has a stake in the manufacturing of both the Eurofighter and the F35.

 

[Nowski]

The ZUSA has done this crap before.

F35 is today's equivalent, of the 1930's Brewster Buffalo.

Vastly superior aircraft, that were flown by enemy air forces and navies.

During the Battle of Midway, Brewster Buffaloes were shot out of the air,
by superior Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zeros.

Most likely, the exact same thing will happen, when the F35 tangles with
the Russian SU-57.

The ZUSA killed off the absolute best fighter jet in the world,
when it ended the production of the F-22. Now there was a fighter jet
that should still be in production, to give the ZUSA a fighter jet,
with the capabilities to actually go to battle and win.

Please be safe everyone.

Regards to all.

Nowski

F2A Brewster Buffalo