Fighter jets due to land in UK after US voyage

BRITAIN’S CUTTING-EDGE F-35 Lightning stealth fighter jets have left the US and weather permitting were due to touch down on UK soil late last night.

The UK’s supersonic aircraft have been stationed in America since their manufacture, being tested and used for training by Royal Air Force and Royal Navy pilots.

Four of the jets, based at US Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, were last night crossing the Atlantic – a journey expected to take between eight and nine hours – to become permanently UK-based.

One of the five jets which launched yesterday returned to Beaufort after the four destined for the UK had successfully taken on fuel from the RAF tanker escorting the aircraft – a routine decision.

Another five jets will join the aircraft at RAF Marham by the end of July and beginning of August, with the recently reformed 617 squadron the Dam Busters set to declare initial operational capability from land by the end of December.

It is understood the jets will land any time after 7pm and will do so on the runway at RAF Marham, instead of using their vertical landing capability.

The arrival of the multimillion-pound aircraft had been expected to take place on Tuesday, but owing to adverse weather conditions over the Atlantic and due to safety fears, this was postponed.

An RAF spokesman said peacetime rules flight safety is always put first so the “routine decision” was taken to postpone.

The officer commander 617 squadron, Wing Commander John Butcher has previously said that the current plan is for him to land first, as he and three other pilots flying the stealth fighter warplanes cross the Atlantic Ocean in a 3,000 mile journey.