Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft

(asked on 22nd July 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the benefits of training F35 pilots in (a) the UK and (b) the US.


This question was answered on 29th July 2019

The UK took the opportunity to embed personnel with the US Marine Corps and jointly develop the operational capability of the F35-B Lightning aircraft. By taking this collaborative approach, the UK has been able to train its personnel in advance of establishing our own Lightning footprint in the UK.

In July this year, personnel returned from the US to establish the Operational Conversion Unit at RAF Marham to enable the UK to conduct its own training.

The UK continues to work closely with its allies to develop the F-35 programme to ensure freedom of action having initially exploited this collaborative route to training.

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