UK to buy up to 74 Lightning stealth fighter jets - 64 less than planned

The admission came from Defense Minister Baroness Goldie, as a Labor peer and former first sea lord, called for more of fighter planes

A government minister confirmed the downgrade in the House of Lords (

Image: UK Ministry of Defense 2019)

Britain will only buy a maximum of 74 F-35 Lightning fighter jets, a defense minister admitted today.

When the Joint Strike Fighter program was first unveiled 15 years ago, the UK pledged to purchase 138 of the state-of-the-art combat aircraft.

However, in a little-noticed debate in the House of Lords this morning, Defense Secretary Baroness Annabel Goldie suggested that 74 would be the maximum number.

Receive a daily morning political briefing straight to your inbox.Sign up for the free Mirror Politics newsletter

"The current level of F-35s is 26; by 2025 there will be 22 more, bringing the flight to 48. The intention is to purchase a further tranche of additional F-35B aircraft, which has been announced and will bring the total UK fleet to 74 aircraft,” she told her peers.

"The ultimate plan is to increase it to 74."

Minister of Defence, Baroness Goldie (

Picture:

PENNSYLVANIA)

Earlier this year, the senior RAF officer, Air Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, told MPs that the decision to go beyond the 74 stealth aircraft already on order "will be taken in the middle of the decade".

He added, "It's perfectly plausible to imagine a situation where we could have the fleet of 138 F-35s that we originally described in the early 2000s."

However, experts have long feared that the huge expenditure on Lockheed Martin aircraft means the UK will never have as many.