High costs and concerns about affordability threaten the future of the F-35 joint strike fighter, the program executive officer for the aircraft warned May 13.
The jet is the most expensive acquisition effort in the history of the Defense Department. Current Pentagon plans call for procuring more than 2,400 of the platforms including the A, B and C variants operated by the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, respectively at a cost of about $400 billion. The price tag for operations and sustainment is expected to top $1 trillion during the lifecycle of the aircraft.
“I see cost as the program’s greatest enemy,” said Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, PEO for the F-35, at the McAleese and Associates annual defense programs conference. “I see high costs as an existential threat to the F-35 as an enterprise. And that cost happens not just in development, not just in production, but in sustainment as well.”
By
Theresa Hitchens on May 13, 2021 at 5:15 PM
WASHINGTON: The F-35 Joint Program Office is still evaluating when the fighter will formally clear its 20-year development phase after a new expert study of testing requirements, says JPO Director Lt. Gen. Eric Fick.
However, officially passing through ‘milestone C’ into full-rate production may not matter that much, Fick told the annual McAleese defense conference today.
It will do little to change either how fast planes are already being built or how deeply involved the JPO and acquisition leaders at DoD and the services will remain in managing the sprawling, $400 billion procurement effort.
‘I'D LIKE TO MODIFY MY ORIGINAL ASSESSMENT’: By his own account, Chris Miller, installed as acting defense secretary by President Donald Trump after he fired Mark Esper for insufficient loyalty, was itching to testify before Congress and set the record straight.
By
Theresa Hitchens on April 26, 2021 at 5:08 PM
An Air Force maintainer plugs into the F-35 to perform pre-flight checks.
WASHINGTON: DoD is considering how the services might take over more of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s maintenance chores from Lockheed Martin in order to reduce costs.
The study of future sustainment options
is one of a number of efforts by DoD’s F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO), prime contractor Lockheed Martin and engine-maker Pratt & Whitney to get a handle of the program’s myriad issues. These range the jet’s sky high operating costs, to chronic spare parts shortages, to its deeply-troubled ALIS maintenance software, to a potential shortfall of F135 engines, to Block 4 software delays.
Congress May Put the Kibosh on Buying Extra F-35 Fighter Jets
The active-duty 388th and Reserve 419th Fighter Wings conducted an F-35A Combat Power Exercise at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, Jan. 6, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo/R. Nial Bradshaw)
26 Apr 2021
For years, Congress has given the military services the option to buy extra F-35 Joint Strike Fighter stealth jets that were not in the original budget request. But some lawmakers say that practice may be coming to an end.
In a joint hearing April 22, members of the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces and readiness subcommittees cited long-term affordability concerns for the Defense Department s most expensive fighter jet program; they said that additional funding is unlikely for a program plagued with operational issues and cost overruns.