LONDON — Empowering the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force to reintroduce a nuclear-strike capability as soon as possible will be a key priority for the service in the coming years, according to Air Chief Marshal Harv Smyth, the country’s Chief of the Air Staff, who took over the role in August.
“The RAF will soon have a capability to offer NATO credible and robust response options, because we have added it to our escalation ladder,” Smyth said in a keynote speech at the 2025 DSEI UK show in London. “A nuclear-empowered Lightning will enable the U.K. with this capability.”
Smyth was referring to London’s June 2025 announcement that the nation will acquire 12 new F-35A fighter jets to join NATO’s dual-capable aircraft nuclear mission. The procurement will allow the U.K. to reintroduce aircraft that can carry both conventional and atomic payloads. The United States, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, and Turkey are the other NATO member states that currently operate such platforms.
Under the plan, the new fighter jets are to be based at the RAF’s Marham base, with London expected to secure a total of 138 F35 aircraft over the lifetime of the program.
“I would expect our adversaries to take a key note of this change,” the Air Force chief said after singling out Russia, China, Iran and North Korea as countries that are “all active in today’s battle space.”
“We enter the era of the defense dividend with a government that wants to make the U.K. a world defense superpower,” Smyth added. “In an uncertain future, air and space power will continue to be the nation’s first responder.”
Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.
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