The UK’s F-35 capability

The MoD should develop, maintain and update an assessment of the value it intends to deliver throughout the life of the programme. This should include a clear weighting of all military and non-military benefits over the short, medium and long-term, for example in a balanced scorecard, to give decision-makers a fuller understanding of the programme?s value and support to informed choices about trade-offs.

In support of this assessment, and to enable full accountability, the MoD should calculate the following costs, including all relevant Defence Lines of Development and operational costs, including: ? costs to date, including all sunk costs; ? 10-year forecast costs which take a prudent view on programme issues and plans which could materially affect costs; and ? building on its recent whole-life cost calculation to 2069, including adapting for different scenarios depending on the number and variant of equipment type ordered, and adding in other relevant Defence Lines of Development and operational costs.

As part of its wider plans for reform, the MoD should consider what structural changes it can make to support more effective F-35 programme delivery, including: ? extending the length of Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) and other senior programme staff tenures;

As part of its wider plans for reform, the MoD should consider what structural changes it can make to support more effective F-35 programme delivery, including: ? providing appropriate financial and commercial freedoms including increasing delegations;

As part of its wider plans for reform, the MoD should consider what structural changes it can make to support more effective F-35 programme delivery, including: simplifying lines of accountability so that, where appropriate, relevant Defence Lines of Development report more formally to the programme?s SRO;

As part of its wider plans for reform, the MoD should consider what structural changes it can make to support more effective F-35 programme delivery, including: streamlining approvals regimes. In particular, the MoD should ensure that F-35 investment requests receive scrutiny based on the value of the specific request being made rather than the value of the total F-35 programme, thereby encouraging a proportionate scrutiny approach to lower value requests within the programme.

The MoD should tighten its measurement of the capability of the F-35, relating it to an objective measure based on the high-level characteristics and key user requirements derived from the Secretary of State?s policy baseline relating to F-35.