UK to spend £2.5bn on F-35 fighters- BBC News

Main points:
1-critics have questioned Ministry of Defence suggestions that the jets will be fully combat capable by 2020. 

2- it has been plagued by development problems, is years late into service and the true cost to the UK is only just becoming clear.

3-With 8.4m lines of software, it is by far the most complex fighter ever built, but a Pentagon inspector's report stated that by last summer only 2% of that code was fully up to standard. Much of the plane's software, including that needed to aim and launch weapons, remains to be proven in tests.

 4-Former Royal Navy chief Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, who now works with Lockheed Martin, believes the new aircraft is vital to maintaining Britain's status as a serious international player.

 5-One Pentagon estimate last year for an aircraft plus support costs for the first few years came out at £154m ($253m) each.

 6-It's planned that the 14 aircraft will form the first operational squadron in 2018, and that by 2020 they will be able to fly from HMS Queen Elizabeth. Justin Bronk, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute, says that even by then, they might be capable only of "going through the motions" - taking off and landing - and not using the more advanced weapons in the RAF inventory.
via the BBC
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