New UK F-35As Primarily for Training, Not Nuclear Role

The UK’s planned acquisition of a dozen Lockheed Martin nuclear-capable F-35As—announced last month as part of the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (DIP)—has been primarily secured to support a training requirement, the RAF has revealed.

Speaking at the Global Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference in London on June 15, air vice-marshal Jim Beck, the RAF’s director of capability and programs said the UK “did not buy those aircraft for a dual-capable capability.” Rather, “we bought them for our conversion unit,” he explained.

Last month, the RAF stated that its intended purchase of the 12 conventional take-off and landing F-35A variants will allow the UK to “join NATO’s dual capable aircraft [DCA] nuclear mission in a major boost for national security.” This will see the RAF field an airborne nuclear capability for the first time since retiring its sovereign air-launched nuclear weapons in 1998. In a nuclear role, the F-35A will fly with the U.S. B61-12 nuclear bomb, with adjacent support—including a boom tankering provision missing from UK sovereign capabilities—delivered through the NATO framework.

However, Beck explained that the UK is currently “doing the analysis to understand the size and posture of the force that [it] will need to undertake” a NATO-supporting nuclear capability. “The next point for us is to understand DCA capability, standardized tactics, our joint training, and long-standing partnership with our NATO and European DCA partners,” he said.

Minister for defense readiness and industry Luke Pollard announced last month that the UK “hopes” to start taking delivery of its second F-35 batch, comprising 12 A and an additional 15 VTOL-capable B variants “from the early 2030s.” To date, the UK has taken delivery of 48 F-35Bs.

Regardless of the DIP’s optimism that the first of these additional 27 UK F-35s will enter service “in the early 2030s,” when the A models are delivered, they will be used in a day-to-day training role at RAF Marham’s 207 Squadron. This is the joint RAF and Royal Navy F-35 Operational Conversion Unit. The RAF states that the F-35A’s extended fuel capacity and endurance, alongside the fewer maintenance hours required, make it an incoming type desirable in this role.

This resulting “increased aircraft availability on the Operational Conversion Unit” will, says the RAF, “improve pilot training and reduce the amount of time for pilots to reach the front-line squadrons.” However, according to Beck, the return to the nuclear-capable role nevertheless remains “one of the most important moves we’ve made as an RAF for a generation.”