Joint Strike Fighter and Transatlantic Defence Procurement

Joint Strike Fighter is the sole example of full-spectrum defence procurement collaboration on a weapons platform between the United States and the United Kingdom. What does the unique nature of the JSF programme tell us about the transatlantic defence-industrial relationship? What other models of cooperation are preferred, and why? How do defence procurement and broader geopolitical factors shape each other within the transatlantic context?

Emma Salisbury is a Ph.D. candidate at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her research explores the concept of the military-industrial complex, with a focus on the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries. She is also a senior staffer at the U.K. Parliament and an Assistant Editor at War on the Rocks.