UK F-35 First Flight

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Some of the new Sukhois look very tempting.....

[mhaselden]

Still, will be difficult for the MOD to scrap with decal makers over copyright - hard to see how you can copyright a light grey circle!

Well for years they tried to make us believe that a blue circle was a radar!

I'll get me

[Procopius]

Congress would never allow a 'foreign' type (even built in the US) to get a shout.

[Max Headroom]

Procopius!

In mitigation, there was nothing else viable to compete with it and HSA had been the recipient of US funding for the VSTOL programme anyway.

Slater raises a valid point about what is our Plan 'B' if the US cancels? I hope they don't as both countries have invested too much on the project.

Trevor

[spike7451]

If/when the F-35 enters UK service, will it still be referred to as "F-35" or will "Lightning" be the common term of reference?

It'll be given a designation such as "BAe-Lockheed Lightning FGR-1" or something along those lines

[-Neu-]

Procopius!

In mitigation, there was nothing else viable to compete with it and HSA had been the recipient of US funding for the VSTOL programme anyway.

Slater raises a valid point about what is our Plan 'B' if the US cancels? I hope they don't as both countries have invested too much on the project.

Frankly, that's not going to happen. The US is basically under 20 months away from the F-35B's IOC into the USMC. Cancellation would be insanity of an order of magnitude beyond anything we've ever seen, and there are really no signs of this among the key branches of government. The F-35 has enjoyed vastly stronger DoD/military support, than any major fighter program since the F-16... basically every other major program saw major cuts to its original numbers. Except for a 10% cut in the first years of the program, the expected order buy for the United States has remained the same.

Edited May 20, 2014 by -Neu-