Overview
- A letter from MoD Permanent Secretary Jeremy Pocklington confirmed a carrier deployment took 24 F-35B jets with spare parts sized for only 12, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Public Accounts Committee chair.
- Commanders kept sorties going by flying in parts from RAF Marham and dipping into emergency stocks after the ship left with too few spares.
- The MoD acknowledges the episode and wider supply-chain disruption have fed a maintenance backlog, with salty sea air causing corrosion that has cut near-term availability.
- The RAF says the Lightning Force lacks about 25% of required engineers at RAF Marham and does not expect to have enough fully trained mechanics there until 2032.
- The ministry also bought US bombs as a stop-gap because the British SPEAR-3 missile remains delayed, underscoring a reliance on interim fixes to sustain F-35 capability.