BRITAIN PINS ITS HOPES ON JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER DELIVERING 20,000 JOBS
Tuesday 13 September 2011 8:36 AM
THE JOINT Strike Fighter (JSF), the multi-national military jet programme also known as the F-35, is emerging as something of a great white hope for the UK defence sector.
The UK has a 15 per cent workshare on the nine- nation programme, putting it in line for a $48 billion (£30 billion) boost should the 3,173 planned aircraft be built. That in turn would create or sustain about 20,000 direct and indirect jobs, something that ministers are likely to seize on at this week’s DSEi defence exhibition.
The programme’s main contractor is US defence giant Lockheed Martin. Paul Livingston, a director at Lockheed Martin UK, said: “The F-35 will create or sustain tens of thousands of jobs. There is no other defence programme out there that can deliver that to the UK economy. It is part of the solution for growth.”
The F-35, which costs $75 million a jet according to Lockheed Martin, is a stealthy supersonic aircraft.
There are three versions: a conventional one, a short take-off and landing variant and an aircraft that can be launched by catapult from an aircraft carrier.
The latter, dubbed the F-35 “C”, is on the shopping list of the UK, which has already bought three test aircraft.
Lockheed Martin has spent $4 billion on the UK supply chain over the past 10 years. Its main partner is BAE Systems, which is building the aft fuselage and tails of all the F-35 jets.
Other UK firms on the programme include GE Aviation, Cobham, Rolls-Royce and Goodrich.
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