UK's first transatlantic F-35 delivery flight delayed by weather
Britain’s first permanently UK-based F-35 fighter jets are not arriving in Norfolk today as expected due to RAF concerns about bad weather.
The open secret of the aircraft’s arrival date is being widely discussed on social media, following defence secretary Gavin Williamson’s announcement that the supersonic stealth jets will be arriving at their new RAF Marham home some time this month.
Four of the new fighters, of which the UK currently owns 15, are due to fly across the Atlantic in a marathon 6,440km (4,000 mile) journey. Such a long journey is filled with non-obvious risks, not least because the jets need air-to-air refuelling at a number of points during the journey.
While to the casual reader the idea that the new £85m-apiece fighter aircraft cannot fly in less-than-perfect weather (at the time of writing large parts of the UK are cloudy with sunny intervals) seems bonkers, the full picture is more complex than that.