Britain’s “Unite” union has warned that purchasing the F-35 over the UK-made Eurofighter Typhoon could cost British jobs—and has vowed to fight the acquisition.

A British trade union could be the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II’s newest—and potentially most ominous—adversary. The Unite union is now urging the UK’s Labour government to move forward with the acquisition of additional Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft instead of purchasing additional American-made F-35s, arguing that British aerospace jobs are on the line.

“Union representatives at [Warton] wrote to us in November 2024 to warn that ‘there are currently no Typhoons being final assembled at [the] Warton site and no orders for any future aircraft, essentially production has stopped for British built Typhoon aircraft.’ They called for the UK government to place a further order for 24 aircraft, arguing that this would fulfil a military requirement, maintain industrial capacity, and also encourage export orders from other nations,” the House of Commons Defence Committee (HCDC) noted in its The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) report that published earlier this month.

HCDC said the Unite union had written to it late last year and pressed for the government to increase the purchase of the Eurofighter to support British jobs at BAE Systems’ Warton production facility in northern England. According to the trade magazine Aviation Week, “BAE Systems currently completes final assembly of British and export Eurofighters at its facility in Warton, England, and builds rear fuselages for the F-35 at sites nearby in Samlesbury.”

Unite is one of the largest trade unions in the UK and Ireland, with more than 1.2 million members. It was formed in 2007 following the merger of the Amicus and T&G unions, and it currently represents workers in multiple industries beyond manufacturing. The group has been vocal about the importation of goods into the UK.

Buy More Fighters, Support British Jobs

The Unite union has called for London to reach acquisition levels of the multirole Typhoon that is on par with the partner nations that include Germany, Italy, and Spain. Each of those countries—all NATO members—has ordered additional Eurofighters in the past year.

It was just last month that Rome placed an order for two dozen additional Typhoon aircraft, while Madrid also announced it would acquire 25 more Eurofighters for its air force. Last summer, Berlin moved forward with an order of 20 more fighters, and in recent months, Germany has also signaled it would give a green light to NATO ally Turkey’s acquisition of the Eurofighter Typhoon. 

Shooting Down the F-35

In a release last November, Unite estimated that BAE Systems and engine maker Rolls Royce directly provide 6,500 jobs, with an additional 14,000 in the supply chain. The union group has warned that many of the Royal Air Force’s existing Eurofighter Typhoons are reaching the “end of their operation lifespan,” and should be replaced with newer aircraft.

However, for the sake of jobs, now and in the future, Unite called on the British government to purchase additional Typhoons rather than Lightning IIs—arguing that any acquisition of the F-35 would only secure a few months of work and only for two to three months.

“The UK’s defence workers are critical to the country’s national security. We now need a strong commitment from the MoD that it will invest in the UK to maintain vital skills and capacity in this country,” said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham.

“Recent events clearly show that in an increasingly unstable world it would be reckless not to ensure that our own domestic defence industry is properly supported and capable of meeting the security challenges we face now and into the future,” Graham added. “Defence workers were let down by the previous government due to a combination of incompetence and indecision. Labour must now step up to the plate and make the clear unequivocal investment decisions that workers and their employers desperately need.”

This week, Graham further told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper that the workers supporting the Eurofighter Typhoon program will be the ones who will be needed for the future “Tempest”—the sixth-generation fighter that is at the center of the GCAP.

“Labour must now step up to the plate and make the clear unequivocal investment decisions that workers and their employers desperately need,” Graham said to the paper. “The MoD [Ministry of Defence] needs to place a further order for Typhoon aircraft, which will fulfil a military requirement, maintain industrial capacity, and preserve jobs and skills.”

Though there have been foreign buyers for the Eurofighter—including Austria, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia—the trade union warned that future sales could dry up if London fails to buy additional Typhoons.

“Selling the Typhoon overseas can contribute to our GDP, but we cannot expect foreign governments to buy our fast jets if our own government won’t,” Unite’s defense and aerospace national officer, Rhys McCarthy, told Aviation Week.

About the Author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

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