F-35 Aircraft: Components
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of steps taken by his Department to (a) track the final destination of F-35 components and (b) ensure F-35 components are not used by the Israeli military.
Answered by Mr Douglas Alexander
Once parts are exported from the UK to the global F-35 programme, the UK does not have access to information about the movement of individual components, and does not have control over whether components in the global spares pool or aircraft assembly facilities are used for specific customer nations or not. However, the UK has suspended the export of F-35 components directly to Israel, where these are for use by Israel.
The only way to prevent UK-produced parts reaching Israel would therefore be for the UK Government to stop the export of parts to the entire F-35 programme, which would prejudice the security of the UK and our allies.
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