Defence experts warn of 'disaster' for Britain after Donald Trump

Defence experts warn of ‘disaster’ for Britain after Donald Trump suggests
undoing ‘out of control’ F-35 fighter jet project
By Ruth Sherlock, Washington; Ben Farmer, Defence Correspondent and Alan
Tovey, Industry Editor The Telegraph 12 December 2016 6:33pm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/12/donald-trump-pledges-cut-military-budget-criticising-control

British defence experts expressed alarm yesterday after Donald Trump
suggested he might undo a multi-billion dollar stealth fighter project that
is to form a core part of the United Kingdom’s defensive capabilities.

The president-elect took a casual shot at the F-35 programme for the world’s
most advanced fighter jet tweeting on Monday that the cost was “out of
control”.

“Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases
after January 20th,” he wrote, indicating a change in strategy after his
inauguration.

But defence experts told this newspaper there would be disastrous
consequences for Britain if Mr Trump were to put the plan on the scrap heap
at this late stage.

“If the US were to cancel the programme in its entirety tomorrow, the UK
would truly be up a creek without a paddle,” Francis Tusa, editor of Defence
Analysis, said.

Financially, Britain would lose the GBP 2billion it has contributed to the
research and development of the supersonic jet, which has been designed to
avoid detection on enemy radar.

And, Mr Tusa said, it would leave the UK without a plane to put on its new
Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers: “This is the only plane with
vertical landing”.

Liz Quintana, air power expert at the Royal United Services Institute agreed
that if America decided to cancel the programme, it would leave Britain and
other European allies who have placed orders “a bit stuck”.

She said there was no alternative so-called fifth generation stealth fighter
available anywhere else, or even on the drawing board.

She said: “The US Air Force would be as stuck as anyone else in terms of
what it buys instead.”

If America cut its order numbers, it would also drive up the overall cost of
UK orders.

Britain has agreed to buy 138 of the fighters over the next two decades and
to buy 24 by 2023.

Mr Tusa said scrapping the programme would also have far-reaching
implications in foreign diplomacy.

Israel, Japan and South Korea are among the countries who have committed to
buying a number of the GBP 70 million fighter jets, and who would stand to
lose greatly if it were scrapped.

Mr Trump’s tweet came as Ash Carter, the defence secretary, travelled to
Israel to attend a ceremony marking the delivery of the country’s first F-35
fighters.

But both Ms Quintana and Mr Tusa agreed that, given the dramatic
repercussions, they could not imagine the United States pulling out of the
programme altogether.

Rather, Ms Quintana, interpreted Mr Trump’s message as the “first shot” in a
tough round of cost negotiations with Lockheed Martin, the Government’s
largest defence contractor and developer of the programme. The British
defence giant is the only “tier one” partner in the project, and produces
about 15pc of each aircraft.

The F-35 project has been criticised for its cost and delay

The project – which is expected to cost $1.5 trillion dollars over its
50-year lifetime including in service support – has come under fire for
being overly costly, slow and failing to meet initial expectations.

The price for the 2,450 aircraft the US military will fly has almost doubled
from early expectations to $400billion. Initial contracts also expected
there to be about 1,000 of the jets ready by 2016, but by summer the
consortium behind the aircraft had delivered fewer than 200.

The F-35 has also come in for criticism that it is unable to “dogfight” as
well as jets which are 30 years older than it, though the manufacturers say
this is an unfair comparison as it was never designed for this.

Ms Quintana said: “Frankly everyone would benefit in the programme if we
managed to bring the price down.”

Mr Tusa pointed out that many countries involved in the programme, including
the US, appeared to be slowly backing off their from original commitments of
how many planes to buy.

Following Mr Trump’s tweet, Lockheed Martin shares reportedly plunged by
more than 4 per cent in early trade, shaving billions of dollars from the
company’s market value, while BAE’s stock fell almost 2.5 per cent.

Jeff Babione, Lockheed’s F-35 chief, said the company understood concerns
about affordability, but added: “It’s an amazing programme. It’s great value
and I look forward to any questions that the president-elect may have.”

Mr Trump’s attack comes a week after he condemned as “out of control” the
cost of a new Air Force One plane being built by Boeing.

Source: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=71866