Exclusive: Twice as many supplies for Israel’s “most lethal” fighter jets were sent from Britain than previously known.
JOHN McEVOY
2 December 2024
DECLASSIFIED UK
Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes a delivery of F-35s at Nevatim.
(Photo: Kobi Gideon / GPO)
F-35 components have been shipped from an RAF base to Israel fourteen times amid the Gaza genocide, it can be revealed.
At least two of the deliveries took place this summer shortly after Keir Starmer became UK prime minister.
The shipments were dispatched from a Royal Air Force base in Marham, Norfolk. They were transferred to Nevatim airbase which houses the Israeli air force’s squadrons of F-35 jets.
Declassified previously revealed that seven shipments of F-35 parts had been transported from RAF Marham to Israel since the Gaza bombing began.
The Ministry of Defence has now admitted that there were in fact “14 transfers of F-35 components from RAF Marham to Israel between October 2023 and August 2024”.
There have been no further “exports of F-35 parts direct to Israel via RAF Marham since the licensing suspension” announced by the Labour government in September 2024.
It released the data in response to a parliamentary question tabled by Clive Lewis, the MP for Norwich South.
The revelation could implicate British ministers in war crimes. An Israeli F-35 fighter jet was used to bomb a designated safe zone in Gaza, killing 90 people, in July.
Sam Perlo-Freeman of Campaign Against Arms Trade told Declassified: “The F-35 plays a key role in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. By not merely permitting but actively facilitating the supply of F-35 components to Israel from RAF bases, UK ministers have made themselves parties to war crimes, and risked making UK military personnel complicit”.
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F-35 components sent to Israel from Royal Air Force base
F-35 components have been shipped from an RAF base to Israel fourteen times amid the Gaza genocide, it can be revealed.
At least two of the deliveries took place this summer shortly after Keir Starmer became UK prime minister.
The shipments were dispatched from a Royal Air Force base in Marham, Norfolk. They were transferred to Nevatim airbase which houses the Israeli air force’s squadrons of F-35 jets.
Declassified previously revealed that seven shipments of F-35 parts had been transported from RAF Marham to Israel since the Gaza bombing began.
The Ministry of Defence has now admitted that there were in fact “14 transfers of F-35 components from RAF Marham to Israel between October 2023 and August 2024”.
There have been no further “exports of F-35 parts direct to Israel via RAF Marham since the licensing suspension” announced by the Labour government in September 2024.
It released the data in response to a parliamentary question tabled by Clive Lewis, the MP for Norwich South.
The revelation could implicate British ministers in war crimes. An Israeli F-35 fighter jet was used to bomb a designated safe zone in Gaza, killing 90 people, in July.
Sam Perlo-Freeman of Campaign Against Arms Trade told Declassified: “The F-35 plays a key role in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. By not merely permitting but actively facilitating the supply of F-35 components to Israel from RAF bases, UK ministers have made themselves parties to war crimes, and risked making UK military personnel complicit”.
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F-35 components sent to Israel from Royal Air Force base
Lockheed Martin
Based in Norfolk, RAF Marham describes itself as “the home of the F-35 Lightning, a fifth generation, multi-role, stealth fighter”.
Over 15% of the components for the F-35 are made in the UK, including the rear fuselage, ejection seats, and electronics. The fighter jet has been described as the most “lethal” in the world.
The registered sender of at least seven of the shipments from RAF Marham to Israel was the Lockheed Martin UK Integrated Systems office based in Havant, a town near Portsmouth.
Lockheed Martin is a major US arms corporation and the lead player in the international consortium that produces the F-35 fighter jets. The Havant site is the company’s main headquarters in Britain.
Components were sent from RAF Marham to Heathrow Airport, and then transported to Tel Aviv on cargo flights operated by Israeli airline El Al. They were subsequently transferred to Nevatim airbase.
A Lockheed Martin representative previously told Declassified: “Our company’s success depends on an enduring commitment to business integrity which includes adhering to all United Kingdom government guidelines on the export of defence and dual use equipment from the UK to any country”.
Starmer’s suspensions
Labour suspended some arms export licences to Israel in September but will continue to allow shipments of F-35 components to the country through “global hubs”.
This would allow Britain to send F-35 components to the US for onward export to Israel. Fighter jet parts can also still be exported directly to Israel if they are for onward export to a third country in the F-35 programme.
The Labour government insists that “suspending all licences for the F-35 programme would undermine the global F-35 supply chain that is vital for the security of the UK, our allies and NATO”.
Campaign Against Arms Trade believes UK ministers have not done enough, commenting that “by continuing to allow indirect supplies of components to Israel, they are placing arms industry interests over human lives and international law. The only legal and moral course of action is to stop all arms supplies to Israel, direct or indirect, now”.
Britain has also continued to export components for the Israeli air force’s training aircraft since September because of further gaps in the government’s restrictions on arms sales.
Declassified recently revealed how items were dispatched by UK-based engineering firm Martin-Baker to an Elbit Systems factory in Karmiel, Israel, in October.
Martin-Baker specialises in ejection seats, which are found in military planes across the West, including in the cockpit of the IAF’s T-6 training fleet.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John McEvoy is acting Head of Investigations for Declassified UK.
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