The previous Labour government had placed orders for two new aircraft carriers to be equipped with the F-35B variant of the American-built jointstrikefighter(JSF), which is capable of short take-off and vertical landing.
Critics carp that the plane is unneeded in a post-Cold War world and that we should, instead, only upgrade the F-15 and F-16 and wait for the proposed JointStrikeFighter(JSF) aircraft that's coming several years hence.
Although the Pentagon and the three services that will receive the new aircraft have stated repeatedly their full commitment to the JointStrikeFighter(JSF) F-35 program, its fate is by no means assured, particularly if defense budgets decline further than currently planned.