Britain commits to next phase of JSF

Published: Dec 12, 2006
Source: www.dfw.com



Britain signed an agreement Tuesday committing to the next development and production phase of Lockheed Martin’s new Fort Worth-built Joint Strike Fighter jet, resolving a dispute between the Pentagon and its biggest overseas partner over sharing technology for the advanced fighter jet.

Lord Peter Drayson, Britain’s arms procurement minister, said the country hasn’t fully committed to buying the jets, though preliminary plans call for the country to buy 150 of the fighters, also known as the F-35.

Britain already has invested $2 billion in the $276 billion defense program. But it had balked at agreeing to the next phase and threatened to pull out because of concerns the Pentagon wasn’t sharing enough information about the sensitive software and other technology for the jet.continue..