UK Must Send F-35s to Italy, Engines to Turkey for Overhauls

Britain Must Send Its F-35s to Italy for Heavy Overhauls, Decrees US, and ship the engines to Turkey for overhauls and upgrades (excerpt)

Britain will have to send its supersonic F-35 fighter jets to Italy for heavy overhauls, the UK Ministry of Defence has confirmed to The Register.

BAE Systems will maintain an airframe maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade (MRO&U) capability at RAF Marham in Norfolk, according to a US announcement earlier this week.

However, that will only be used if Italy, the Americans' designated airframe overhaul point in Europe, is unable to cope with demand.

"The F-35 programme is based on a global support solution concept. This is the most cost effective way to deliver the F-35 support solution and is based on economies of scale," the MoD told The Register, adding: "The UK is establishing an F-35 airframe maintenance facility at RAF Marham to maintain UK aircraft. However, regional Airframe 'Heavy' MRO&U and Engine MRO&U will be undertaken in Italy and Turkey."

In Europe, F-35 heavy maintenance will be carried out by the UK for the aircraft's avionics, and as noted above, Italy for the airframes and Turkey for the jets' F135 engines.

The MoD declined to answer questions as to why Britain's carrier strike aircraft will have to be dismantled and shipped abroad for MRO&U work, when a perfectly good airframe overhaul facility exists over here, referring The Register to the Americans for an answer.

This was said to be because the Americans have the lead on PR relating to F-35 maintenance arrangements and not because, as El Reg suggested, the US supplier tail is wagging the British customer dog.

The ministry also strongly claimed that Britain retains sovereignty over the UK's F-35s, saying: "Whilst the UK is participating in a global support solution, it will still have full sovereign control of its aircraft and its carrier strike capability."

This claim is at strong odds with the level of control the US F-35 Joint Project Office seems to have over where and by whom third-line maintenance of frontline British military aircraft will be carried out. Unlike other military projects such as the AirTanker consortium – which leases modified Airbus A330s (known as Voyagers) to the RAF for troop transport and air-to-air refuelling duties – the F-35 purchase was presented to the public as a full purchase.

Given that the US apparently controls who does what with the F-35 even after it has been sold, it appears that Britain has effectively leased the supersonic stealth fighters – and this is before the controversial ALIS maintenance software, which reports each aircraft's maintenance state to system users, is deployed to the UK. (end of excerpt)

Click here for the full story, on The Register website.

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