A new parliamentary report questions whether Britain’s Royal Air Force has enough aircraft and questions whether cuts in the planned fleet of F-35 stealth fighters leaves enough aircraft to take on a peer adversary. The report urgently recommends increasing the number of available aircraft, and suggests low-cost drone ‘loyal wingmen’ to accompany the crewed fleet could be the best solution.
“It is true that mass alone does not win wars,” states the report, but notes that even the most advanced aircraft are likely to suffer major attrition in a serious conflict and that would rapidly eat into the UK’s reduced air force.aircraft, arrive at RAF Marham on June 6, 2018 in Kings Lynn, England. The four F-35 stealth jets are the first of the reformed 617 Squadron to arrive in the UK from the United States.
“Are the F-35s that we have in the UK carrier-borne air systems that are able to operate on land, or are they land-based systems that are able to operate at sea? “ a retired naval captain asked the Committee. “Fundamentally, we make the choice to not decide. That drives double accounting over what you are using those systems for.”
“However, although acquisition costs for the aircraft may have reduced, sustainment costs remain unacceptably high,” says the committee. “The RAF’s failure to correctly calculate the number of maintainers required to service the aircraft is simply inexcusable. At present there are too many unresolved questions about the development and operational deployment of the fleet.