The UK Just Bought 12 F-35As Because Its 48 F-35Bs Can’t Carry This Nuclear Weapon

In 2025 the United Kingdom decided to rejoin the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s airborne nuclear burden sharing mission. Under the Strategic Defense Review last year, the UK selected the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II as the aircraft to carry out this nuclear deterrence mission. This may be puzzling to some observers as the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy already operate the F-35B stealth ‘jump jet’ variant.