Britain could withdraw from a deal to buy the Anglo-American F-35 Joint Strike Fighter unless the US shares military secrets, a minister has said.
Defence procurement minister Lord Drayson made his position clear in an address to the US Senate's Armed Services Committee in Washington.
Last year the UK told the US it must provide the "technology transfer" needed to maintain and upgrade the JSF.
Britain committed $2bn (£1.7bn) to developing the stealth fighter in 2001.
It also became the first of eight countries to join the F-35 JSF project.
In December, the Commons Defence Select Committee said the UK needed "cast-iron assurances" that the US technology transfer would take place.
Lord Drayson was in Washington to discuss ongoing disputes over the aircraft.
He said: "Without the technology transfer to give us aircraft that are fit to fight on our terms, we will not be able to buy this aircraft."
In August, Rolls-Royce won a £1.3bn ($2.47bn) deal to develop a second engine for the JSF, which is intended to replace the current generation of fighters.
Lord Drayson said plans by the Bush administration to scrap this second engine could threaten British involvement.
He told the committee in Washington that Britain expected to be consulted before cuts to the engine programme were proposed.
But a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence played down the threat of a split with the US.
"Lord Drayson is clear he can find a way through that will meet our requirements for sovereign capability," he said.

Takes me back to the sound-barrier/Miles Aircraft affair

Bring back the Seafire and Swordfish 8)

Why is their a "technology transfer", oh 'am I right, we need to give information "performance data" to Rolls-Royce to design a jet engine for our aircraft. for the future of aeronautical achievments?

This is the best reason I can think of for not depending on foreign countries for military equipment.

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What Stealth deal was that? The 'sharing' of technical knowledge seems to have been a one way street for decades.
http://rodneykirkby.members.beeb.net/M-52Pic&Words.html

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I find it's gonna take a while before any crountrie obtain any stealth technology from the USA, the case that we will support other countries with this , is only by seeing them get caught up with the same technology. So basically when another country can successfully engineer a stealth plane that will be in active service, the US will never give it's secrets away.

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With BAES being one of the foremost avionics companies in the world I'd be very surprised if they didn't have significant "low observability" ( ) experience...

If there are any I would be happy to. However I have no idea of the name. I just know of its exsistence. I can pretty much guarentee you the reason we dont have them in active service is simply cost and need. We have no need to spend the required amounts for stealth aircraft. The US gladly do that for us. Plus our Tornado pilots have bigger grapefruits, lets face it. Its far braver to fly into a warzone day or night at 100 feet doing mach 1+ to deliver your payload while seeing the whites of your enemies eyes. Instead of flying an all black plane that cant be seen at night and barely heard. Sorry had to