Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will estimate the cost of upgrading the mission software on F35B Lightning II aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force after the completion of Block 3F testing.

The UK is part of a collaborative partnership on F-35 and therefore pays a shared contribution to the development of capability beyond the Block 3F capability. The cost of this activity, although provisionally estimated, has yet to be finalised with industry and is the subject of on-going discussion with the eight Partner Nations. As these costs will be the subject of commercial negotiations over the coming year, they cannot be made public at this time.