New jets 'too heavy to take off'
LONDON, England -- British defense chiefs have admitted to "concern" over a £5 billion ($8.77bn) order for U.S. fighter jets said to be too heavy to take off from Royal Navy ships.
Britain has agreed to buy 150 of the new Joint Strike Fighters to replace the Royal Navy's Harrier Jump Jets. But the £35 million Lockheed Martin planes are 3,300lb overweight, Sunday newspapers revealed.
It means they cannot stage the dramatic vertical take-offs that are the Harriers' trade-mark, the UK's Press Association reported.
It also means the runways on two aircraft carriers being built for the Royal Navy are too short for the U.S. jets.
The projects are being carefully co-ordinated and the problem will be solved in time for the jets to come into service in 2012 as planned, the UK Ministry of Defence said.
"The weight problem is a concern but problems like this occur in the early stages of complex programs," a spokeswoman told PA.
"From our perspective, these problems do not undermine the program or our choice of aircraft."
The new aircraft is 45ft long and 30ft wide with greater speed and stealth to penetrate the most sophisticated surface-to-air missile defenses.
The weight problem has been caused by its jump-jet engine which, though widely accepted as the most advanced of its kind, is far heavier than envisaged, PA reported.
