British politicians raise concerns over joint warplane program

LONDON, Dec.19 (Xinhua) -- A lack of transparency risks undermining public confidence in the expensive international defense procurement program in history, the building of the F-35 strike fighter warplane, a report by the British parliament said Tuesday.

MPs from the House of Commons defense committee expressed their concerns in a report, "Unclear for take-off? F-35 Procurement".

The committee launched its F-35 inquiry following a series of articles published in London by the Times newspaper in July 2017. These reported a number of serious allegations, including claims that the F-35 "is way over budget, unreliable, full of software glitches and potentially unsafe".

Politicians on the committee said there had been an unacceptable lack of transparency regarding costs, and a poor initial response from the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and Lockheed Martin to reports in The Times newspaper. The committee said the F-35 project must be subjected to the closest possible scrutiny.

Chairman of the Defense Committee, the MP, Dr Julian Lewis, said: "There has been an unacceptable lack of transparency from the MoD and Lockheed Martin which risks undermining public confidence in the programme.

The report said that despite repeated requests, the MoD failed to provide the committee with the full cost of each aircraft, once spares, upgrades and retrofits are included, or its estimates of the total cost of the program beyond 2026/7.

"The committee's report views this failure to provide adequate cost estimates, either on a per aircraft or program-wide basis, as wholly unsatisfactory. The committee warns that this risks undermine public confidence in the program and calls on the MoD to publish the 'rough orders of magnitude' it claims to possess for the total costs of the F-35 program beyond 2026/7."

The report also highlighted that the broadband capacity on the new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers will need to be beyond the reported limit of 8 megabits, and, in all likelihood, in excess of the 32 megabits currently available even on the USS America, if the potential benefits of the F-35 to Britain's future carrier strike capabilities are to be realised.

The committee said it will continue paying close attention to F-35 program, adding it acknowledges assurances received from Lockheed Martin and the MoD that the issues identified in The Times's investigation and the reports of the Pentagon's Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) have been, or are in the process of being, rectified. Enditem