Image source: topwar.ru
Britain procured American fighters of the fifth generation F-35, but there are difficulties, because of which the operation of these aircraft is still problematic. As it turned out, Britain simply does not have the required number of pilots being able to manage the fighter and the training of new takes too much time. This was stated by the Minister of defence of the United Kingdom Ben Wallace.
The head of the British military establishment were made by the House of lords of the Parliament, which recognized the existence of a problem with the shortage of pilots of high qualification, capable of driving the American F-35. According to him, currently there are problems associated with the training of pilots, because of which the training of flight crews takes up to eight years instead of two or three installed.
said Wallace.
According to British media reports, only Britain had planned to purchase in the U.S. 138 F-35 fighter various modifications, but in the end, since 2006, has acquired a total of 27 American aircraft at a price of 218 million dollars per unit. Today from this number three aircraft are still in the United States, and one was lost as a result of falling into the Mediterranean sea aboard the aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth in November last year. In the context of the first contract London should receive 48 F-35 fighter before 2025.
In 2019, the UK Ministry of defence announced plans to abandon further procurement of the F-35 because of the high cost of the aircraft, and difficulty in maintenance, too, by the way, is quite expensive.
