The questions below were submitted in the House of Lords by Admiral Lord West. Comment is provided after each answer.
Question:
To ask His Majesty’s Government what is the projected cost of the new Typhoon radar; and when it will enter frontline service. (HL3832)
Tabled on: 28 November 2022
Answer:
Baroness Goldie:
In July 2022, the Ministry of Defence announced a further £2.35 billion investment in Typhoon, including fitting an electronically scanned radar, the European Common Radar System (ECRS) Mk2, as well as other improvements under the Phase 4 Enhancement aircraft upgrade package.
The ECRS Mk2 radar is currently forecast to achieve an initial operating capability on the Typhoon aircraft fleet by the end of the decade, although opportunities to accelerate the programme are being explored.
Date and time of answer: 12 Dec 2022 at 17:21.
Comment.
Expending £2.35 billion on a new radar for our fleet of Typhoon fighter aircraft that have no strategic mobility or flexibility beyond the European NATO area is misdirected investment. That the upgraded aircraft won’t have an Initial Operating Capability until 2030 must class this investment as completely unjustified, especially in the light of £ billions planned for investment in the Typhoon successor, the Tempest, ostensibly due in service in the mid-30s. Promises of future capability have zero value when our global military defences are tested without warning. We should now be spending at least some if not all of this money on providing full fixed wing air groups for our carriers and increasing the strength and availability of our surface and submarine fleets.
Baroness Goldie, the Ministry of Defence, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL3831):
Question:
To ask His Majesty’s Government whether the embarked trials for F35B shipborne rolling vertical landing (SRVL) have been successfully achieved; and if not, when they will be completed. (HL3831)
Tabled on: 28 November 2022
Answer:
Baroness Goldie:
The Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing trials have not yet been completed. Planning is underway to identify a suitable period for the trials to be undertaken but a date has not yet been confirmed.
Date and time of answer: 12 Dec 2022 at 17:21.
Comment.
Based upon embarked experience, it is expected that the planned trials will establish the limited relevance of SRVLs to the peacetime and wartime operation of the F-35B carrier borne fighter. Considerable vertical landing experience in all weathers at sea indicates that, at most, the SRVL may have a place strictly as an Emergency Procedure: but only in calm seas with a dry deck, high temperatures, little prevailing wind and little deck movement. It is in these conditions (which are rare) that the thrust/weight ratio for vertical landing becomes marginal. The absolute need for the SRVL Procedure in other weathers is questionable. The key words here are “careful management by the Command of aircraft mission configuration in peacetime and in war”. My follow-up Insight addresses this issue in more detail.
Baroness Goldie, the Ministry of Defence, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL3833):
Question:
To ask His Majesty’s Government when Tempest (Future Combat Air System-FCAS) is due to enter service. (HL3833)
Tabled on: 28 November 2022
This question was grouped with the following question(s) for answer:
- To ask His Majesty’s Government what is the planned cost of the Tempest Programme; and how many platforms it is based around. (HL3829)
Tabled on: 28 November 2022
Answer:
Baroness Goldie:
The 2021 Defence Command Paper said that we will invest more than £2 billion out to 2025. This is part of a UK budget of over £10 billion over the next ten years, although the ultimate amount we invest will depend on key programme choices.
We are now in the Concept and Assessment Phase (2021-25), during which key work is being undertaken to define and begin design of the capability we require. The design of the aircraft will be a key factor in determining the number we seek to acquire and this should be clearer by the end of the Concept and Assessment Phase.
Date and time of answer: 12 Dec 2022 at 17:20.
Comment.
This planned expenditure on the Tempest Project (already approaching £17 billion) cannot be justified at a time when financial resources are limited and when the government complains about not enough cash to procure the right number of frontline F-35B aircraft for full Carrier Air Group composition as well as any land-based requirement. The Project is likely to cripple the defence budget and is already absorbing substantial resources. Critical question: Has the government insisted that, in the Tempest Concept and Assessment Phase, a Key Requirement must be the capability to embark in and operate from our aircraft carriers whenever the latter are deployed? If so-designed principally for carrier operations, this would endow the Tempest project with some worthwhile, strategic significance. If not so-designed, Tempest will lack strategic utility and will have limited capability as a relatively short range, land-based, tactical fighter aircraft.
Baroness Goldie, the Ministry of Defence, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL3830):
Question:
To ask His Majesty’s Government whether the primary reason for the purchase of F35B fighter aircraft is to provide an air wing for the new aircraft carriers (HL3830)
Tabled on: 28 November 2022
Answer:
Baroness Goldie:
I refer the Noble Lord to the response I gave to him on 8 September 2022 (House of Lords Debate, column 269).
The following documents were submitted as part of the answer and are appended to this email:
- File name: Lords Hansard 8 September 2022.docx
Description: Royal Navy: F35B
Date and time of answer: 12 Dec 2022 at 17:20.
Comment.
The comments given in “Royal Navy: F35B” are obfuscatory and demonstrate a lack of military strategic background by the author of the paper. An earlier quote from the Baroness, “If necessary, [F-35B] embarking in carriers”, displays ignorance of the vital need to be fully prepared and capable of answering the call to combat at short notice. That need involves a full air group of 24 fighters always being embarked when the carrier is deployed at sea.
Baroness Goldie, the Ministry of Defence, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL3834):
Question:
To ask His Majesty’s Government whether they still intend that carrier strike will achieve full operating capability by December 2023; and whether this means one carrier fully operational with 24 F35s embarked and a functioning Crowsnest AEW system. (HL3834)
Tabled on: 28 November 2022
Answer:
Baroness Goldie:
At present the definition and timing of Full Operational Capability of Carrier Strike remains unchanged and on current plans will be declared December 2023.
Date and time of answer: 12 Dec 2022 at 16:08.
Comment.
The Baroness studiously avoids answering the second part of the question. An operational war fighting capability can only be realised with a full air group of 24 F-35Bs being permanently embarked when a carrier is deployed. The anticipated serviceability rate of this sophisticated aircraft may be no more than about 60%, leaving just 15 aircraft available to the Command in peacetime or high tension for all aircraft roles, including air defence. In the event of hostilities being imminent, the fighter air group needs to be increased to 36 aircraft – improving the actual availability to the Command to 22 aircraft. This would ensure mission success.
As ever, on the money (literally in this case!) Fascinating to read of the good Baroness’s wide and deep experience in defence matters; zero! Career lawyers have a place but invariably in a court room (decide for yourself which role she is best suited -prosecution, usher but certainly not defence!) Bereft of any attribute for the Defence portfolio, one can only assume that she knows where the bodies are buried and/or whose keen sense of smell makes her intuitively furtive with her brief. Hey Ho, it’s Christmas – time for a celebratory light blue party. Be quiet Tigger!
If only they would listen!