To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimates they have made of the savings in development costs for the integration of F-35B aircraft flight operations into the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers as a result of the use of simulators.

There are no specific figures available which estimate the savings in development costs due to the use of simulators. This lack of data is because the development programme was planned from the outset to include the use of synthetics. Consequently, all flight test activity will have been estimated on the basis of the Programme having successfully completed a phase of concept demonstrations and risk reduction using simulators.