RAF’s £100m new F-35B fighter jet FINALLY takes to the skies after being grounded by bad weather
The F-35B took off from UK soil for the first time today, during exercises at RAF Marham in Norfolk
THE RAF’s £100million new F-35B fighter jets have finally takes to the skies after being grounded by bad weather.
One of F-35B’s took off from UK soil for the first time today, during exercises at RAF Marham in Norfolk.
Four of the supersonic fighters crossed the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month after being based at US Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina.
RAF Wing Commander John Butcher, said the first flight was a "great step forward".
He told Norfolk residents the jets would be an "increasingly familiar sight" in their skies.
Wg Cdr Butcher said: "I am looking forward to hearing how that went when I get back to base today.
"But I know the aircraft took off and landed safely, and now we just need to see how the processes (that) are in place (work) now that we have done one flight.
"We need to make sure the engineers are going through the correct processes, we need to make sure the logistics and supply chain are there and in place to support us.
"And we need to make sure that any outstanding actions that may have come from this first flight are covered off. So it could still be a few more days before we fly again."
Wg Cdr Butcher said the plan for the first flight was to "stay mainly local", so that systems could be checked, and the performance of the aircraft could be observed.
He said there had been a three-week delay on the first flight due to a number of acceptance checks on the jets.
"We have had to move them across from the American electronic servers across to ours, and do all of the data checks and make sure all of the data is there from an airworthiness perspective, to then verify those and accept them on to the squadron," he said.
"We have had some bits of missing data during that transfer, so we have been working through that.
"But, this is all business as usual for us.
"None of it is anything that we didn't plan for in terms of contingency, so we have been working through those in a methodical fashion to make sure that we can get the jets into a serviceable state to take them flying in a safe manner."
The UK's £9.1 billion programme to buy 48 of the F-35s, the world's most advanced fighter jet, over the next decade, has come under fire over capability and expense.
Reports have suggested that the effective cost of each plane is as much as £150 million when logistics and support are taken into account.
Five more UK F-35 are also expected to arrive from the US at RAF Marham by the end of July or beginning of August.
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Britain currently has 15 F-35Bs - the short take off and vertical landing variant of the jets - and has pledged to purchase 138 in total from American Aviation giant Lockheed Martin.
The jets will be jointly operated by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy and will operate from land and sea, including off the decks of the new £3.1 billion Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.
Since their arrival, 617 squadron are now working towards declaring initial operating capability from land by the end of December.
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