UK’s £100m fighter that will put the wind up Putin
AT the touch of a red button, an RAF pilot obliterates jihadist militants in Syria with a laser-guided missile – moments after blowing up an enemy warplane that never saw him coming.
This is the world’s most advanced stealth fighter jet, which will soon fly secret missions blitzing enemy strongholds.
Britain has so far bought eight F-35b Lightning II jets which are set to fly off two UK aircraft carriers, along with American jets, by 2020.
The Daily Mail was given access to the cockpit of the aircraft yesterday as a simulator created a scenario in which the warplane would take out a threatening ground-based missile system.
Billed as the world’s most sophisticated jet – at the cost of £100million – the stateof-the-art cockpit system enables the pilot to tell friendly jets from foe. His screen also includes real-time information from other F-35s flying for friendly foreign nations.
Between them at any moment they will be covering tens of miles, with a 360-degree picture of what is going on around them both in the air and on the ground.
The Lockheed Martin jet has the ability to evade enemy air defences by having the lowest possible radar signature.
The Joint Strike Fighter stealth jet uses radar-absorbent coatings, as well as flat surfaces, sharp edges and fibre mats to deflect radar signals, allowing it to strike the enemy before they even know the aircraft is nearby.
Experts say this technology can make it invisible to the high-frequency radars used in modern air- defence systems. It is expected to be the backbone of Allied air power for the next 50 years.
Lockheed Martin’s Steve Over sees the F-35 fighter jet in action the Middle East
‘Make the UK a formidable power’
and in confrontations with Russia in the next decade. Speaking at a demonstration of the capabilities of the jet in London, he said the aircraft would make the UK a ‘formidable power’ in the battlefield against Vladimir Putin and Islamic State.
The US, Italy, Canada, Turkey and Australia have also purchased the jets, making it the most expensive defence programme ever.
Mr Over, international business development director for the F-35 programme, said the planes would enable Britain to reassert itself as a global force.
He told the Mail: ‘The F-35s will deter large nation states. When the Cold War ended who would have thought that we would still be dealing with an aggressive state such as Russia. Countries like Russia and China will push until they meet a point of resistance and this aircraft gives nations like the UK the edge.
‘This makes Britain a formidable power. This sees Britain working with a coalition to provide a common capability so can all fight together and defeat an entire nation.’
Mr Over said the aircraft would be ideal for scenarios such as those in Syria.
With six cameras attached to the jet and the advanced radar system, the plane can detect surface- to- air missiles on the ground and provide real-time updates of jihadists walking around.
‘If you think about operations in Syria at the moment, the F-35 has the capacity to deal with these sorts of threats,’ Mr Over said. The pilot will wear a visor which will provide 360-degree views of what is going on around him, and the screen in front of him in the cockpit will collate all information from foreign F-35 jets.
A British pilot will know exactly where foreign fighter jets are located and information that they receive will come up automatically on his display system. If an American pilot has decided to put an unknown aircraft on its ‘target list’ to take down, the British pilot will know immediately of its plans.
The purchase of more of the F-35 combat jets will be decided in the government’s strategic, defence and security review which will be pub- lished this autumn. Critics have described the second aircraft carrier as a ‘gigantic white elephant’ because there are currently not enough British jets to fly off even one.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has spoken about how he envisages a future of more ‘interoperability’ and cooperation between allies fighting against common enemies. His comments suggest the UK could heavily rely on US F-35s to fly off the aircraft carriers – which could be deployed anywhere in the world – in the future.
An RAF source said of the new aircraft: ‘It is like upgrading from a Nokia 3310 to a smartphone, with the ability to use a myriad of apps than can be downloaded.’
But the Joint Strike Fighter programme has not been without its setbacks. Last year a US pilot had to run from an F-35 jet after it caught fire during takeoff on a military base in Florida as it embarked on a training mission.