Jet Purchase

The chair of the Government’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Sir

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, has described the MoD’s cost forecast for the
F-35 fighter jet programme as “unrealistic”. The Committee – which
scrutinises the financial accounts and holds the government to account for
the delivery of public services’ – produced a report into the MoD’s
management of its F-35 fighter jet programme, which will see Britain buy a
total of 138 jets – likely to be 63 F-35B ‘stealth’ jets and 75 of
the nuclear-capable F-35A fighter jets. Despite Prime Minister Keir
Starmer’s announcement in June at the NATO summit that Britain, for the
first time since the end of the Cold War, would be expanding its nuclear
capability through the purchase of 12 F-35A jets, the Committee’s report
reveals the Ministry of Defence had little understanding of the
implications – both technical or financial – of NATO integration of its
nuclear-capable fighter jets when this announcement was made.

 Labour Outlook 8th Nov 2025

 https://labouroutlook.org/2025/11/08/british-nuclear-jets-programme-costs-unrealistic-cnd/