Donald Trump’s assertions that F-35 jets could be scrapped as they are too expensive could leave Britain with two useless aircraft carriers costing £6.2bn ($7.6bn). The Royal Navy are preparing to receive two new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, with the first, HMS Queen Elizabeth, planned for sea trials in Spring 2017.

The design of the two new 65,000-tonne ships can only allow for the launch and landing of jets with short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) capability. The only jump jet capable in production at the moment is the Lockheed Martin F-35, so if the project to build the jet was cancelled, plans to complete the building of the ships may also be halted.

The bombastic President-elect tweeted on Thursday (22 December): “Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!”

In response to the billionaire’s Tweet, Luke Coffey, a former special adviser to defence secretary Liam Fox, told The Sun: “If the US cancels the STOVL variant of F-35, it would be an absolute betrayal of the US-UK Special Relationship.”

The F-35 programme is reportedly regarded as the Pentagon’s largest weapons project with the stealth aircraft designed to perform ground attack and air defence missions at speeds of up to 1,930km/h (1199m/h).

Time reported that the F-35 project has been one of the most expensive military projects in history, costing upwards of $1.45tn (£1.2tn).

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