I am pleased that it is one we can work in a bipartisan manner. I believe we all want a Strong Military and a strong private sector and a strong government that is wisely tracking taxpayers money and spending it efficiently for the purposes that it was meant for. I look forward to working with the Ranking Member in the future and i am so pleased he is with us here today. Without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time and i now recognize myself for an Opening Statement. Good morning. Todays hearing will focus on the f35 joint strike fighter. A highly technical stuff fighter that the pentagon largest and most costly acquisition program. Since the 35 Program Began more than 20 years ago the department of defense has spent more than 350 billion on its development. Total cost to sustain the program are estimated at more than 1 trillion. Unfortunately, this expensive program has been plagued by challenges for years, including major problems with maintenance of the aircraft. This hearing will address the money, time and manpower our military is being forced to spend to address problems with equipment logs for spare parts from a primary contractor, Lockheed Martin. In june 2019 the dod Inspector General found that over a three year time more than 15000 spare parts for the f35 lacked electronic equipment log that maintains Important Information on the history of the spare part in the hours flown. This information is critical for the military to determine the age of apart and whether it is safe to keep using. In late 2019 and early 2020 Committee Staff from the majority and minority visited multiple military bases and interviewed personnel who maintained the f35 fleet. During these visits staff confirmed that the problems identified by the ig still have not been resolved. This is unacceptable. As a result of Lockheed Martins failure to provide spare parts that meet contract requirements the military has been forced to divert personnel to troubleshoot these issues and use extensive workarounds to keep at 35 planes flying. This costs american taxpayers millions of dollars they should not have to pay. For example, last year the id estimated that more than 300 million was spent on additional labor costs between 2015 and 2018. As a result of Lockheed Martins failure to provide spare parts with electronic logs the input are general estimates the taxpayers will have to continue paying up to 55 million a year if we do not fix these problems. That does not even include an additional 10 million and unwarranted and sensitive payments Lockheed Martin received in 2017 and 2018. Since then the Defense Contract Management Agency has refined this estimate to determine how many is seen and delayed electronic logs can be attributed specifically to Lockheed Martin. After this process, the Defense Contract Management Agency determined that Lockheed Martin is responsible for at least 183 million and missing and delayed electronic logs from 2015 to early 2020. Thats 183 million that the american taxpayers were forced to pay because Lockheed Martin failed to meet the requirements of its contract. That is why todays hearing is so important. This money belongs to the American People and these are funds that could have been used to train our war fighters, upgrade older airplanes or support Service Members and their families. In the 2020 National Defense authorization act congress required dod to seek and i quote, compensation for costs incurred by the department of defense as a result of the contractors failure to deliver compliant, ready for issue spare parts under the contract. I believe Lockheed Martin needs to pay this money back. Lockheed martin is currently in negotiations with dod to compensate the government for all the defective spare parts it provided. It is imperative that lockheed acknowledge that it failed to meet contract requirements and pay back the American People for these failures. Lockheed will tell us that they have made improvements to ensure f35 parts arrive on base with electronic logs. Improvements have been made but parts are still being delivered without electronic logs. And missing and cropped electronic logs that occur throughout a spare parts lifecycle, not just when they are delivered to a base. And documents provided to the committee, dod itself identified nine points of failure in the lifecycle of a spare part. You are also going to hear and missing electronic logs have never resulted in an accident or fatality and that is very good news so far. The government accountable the office warns that every time dod disregards a warning about a missing electronic log, military personnel are at risk of ignoring real problems with that aircraft. We cannot simply hope that these accidents never occur. These problems must be addressed for our military personnel and we must address it now. The u. S. Government is a major client of Lockheed Martin and in 2019 alone lockheed expected to earn 41 billion in revenue from the u. S. Government. Business paid for by the american taxpayers. For that much money we can expect lockheed to deliver products that work and that keep our servicemembers safe. Anything else is unacceptable. I also plan to look at further legislation needed to ensure that f35 is meeting performance expectations and i want to thank our witnesses for testifying on this important issue and i really want to thank Ranking Member and his staff for their cooperation and assistance on this hearing and the numerous meetings that we had before hand. This truly is a bipartisan investigation and i now yield to the distinguished Ranking Member from the great state of kentucky for his Opening Statement. Spare good morning and thank you, madam chair for those nice words and for holding this important hearing. I appreciate each of our witnesses here today and want to extend my personal thank you to Lieutenant General for his continued service to this country and ms. Ellen lord for her hard work in the department. I want to note that mr. Ulmer wanted to be here but democrat majority declined that request and forced him to testify it virtually great i understand current public house situation but i truly believe it would be vitally important to hear from witnesses in person. Further, since the majority began in a station into Lockheed Martin i feel it is appropriate for their representative to be question virtually even though the maturity did not advise the witness did hearing a fear that what we see today could be used tos express future minority participation. Weve seen a denial of minority witnesses in the select subcommittee and it is important in this committee operate a fair and equitable manner and i asked the chairman to commit to give all future witnesses the choice to appear in person if they wish and not for force their virtual test away. Today we are here to discuss the f35 fighter jets, most advanced weapons system in the world which bring significant war fighting capabilities to our great military. The three variants are used by the air force, marines and navy to fly missions without protection by enemy radar and are equipped for sophisticated Electronic Components that aid the pilot and effectuating his or her mission. These jets let us gather information and engage targets at longer ranges with sophisticate precision guided munitions while avoiding detection. These planes do not come cheap and although the cost per plane is always decreasing, we must be diligent to ensure the government is using all its tools and is felt to keep costs down all maintaining a Mission Ready at 35 fleets. Even though the cost to acquire an f35 aircraft is significant that is not the end of the story. Our military must keep that plane Mission Ready while performing routine maintenance and replacing parts when their life cycle is. The cost of this sustainment or significant the department of defense Inspector General found that many spare parts were delivered to the military lacking or with the defective electronic equipment log meaning that the spare parts were not considered ready for issue. Even though these parts are genuine and ready for use on the aircraft the inability to track the part means that flight crews have to manually track those parts for wear and tear which can lead to increased costs, human error and potentially a threat to life and safety. Fortunately the government and Lockheed Martin entered into a massive collaborative effort to reduce the incidences of non ready for issue spare parts. I am encouraged to hear progress is being made both in reducing the frequency of field efficiencies and identifying previous efficiencies but if there are instances of unsatisfactory contract performance those issues must be remedied but we must also find the root cause. Government contracting can be burdensome and expensive driving Innovative Companies away from the markets. We must Work Together to ensure we get the best products quickly and at the least expensive to the taxpayer. Increasing commercial item acquisition, transparency and in user input may all help with that and i look forward to hearing from our Witnesses Today to talk about their hard work, supporting the f35 fleets and ways that congress can help increase contracting efficiency. With that i yield back. Thank you. Now i would like to introduce our witnesses and a first witness today is the honorable ellen lord, undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment at the department of defense. Then we will hear from Lieutenant General eric t thick, executive officer of the f35 joint Program Office at the department of defense. Next we will go to ms. Diana mauer, director of defense capabilities and management of the Government Accountability office. We will also hear from ms. Teresa hall who is the assistant Inspector General at the apartment of defense, office of Inspector General. Finally, we go to gregory m omer, Vice President and general manager of the f35 lightning two program that Lockheed Martin corporation. The witnesses will be unneeded so they can be sworn in. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god. Let the record show that the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Thank you and without objection your written statements will be made part of the record and with that, undersecretary lord, you are not ruggedized for your testimony. Good morning. Chairwoman, Ranking Member and other distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to update you on the departments at 35 sustainment efforts to improve the f35 ready for issue part for the war fighter and to ensure comprehensive oversight of our contractor supports. I am pleased to be joined by my fellow Witnesses Today to brief the committee the department has made on these issues. The f35 program is a key enabler of all three pillars of the National Defense strategy. First, rebuilding military readiness as we as we build a lethal joint force. Second, strengthening alliances as we attract partners and third, reforming the departments Business Practices for greater performance and affordability. The fifthgeneration stealth and battlefield networking capabilities clearly delivers the lethality needed to meet or fired or requirements. As such, our International Partner nations and Foreign Military customers have chosen the f35 to be at the core of their future airpower planets. Lastly, f35 program is a focus of the departments Reform Efforts to provide affordable or fighter capability. Today i would like to focus my remarks on three main topics to address congressional concerns, increasing accountability within the f35 sustainment enterprise, the departments management response to the dod Inspector General report on ready for issue parts, and my efforts to promote effective oversight within the f35 program. A core focus area of my tenure as under secretary for acquisition and sustainment has been a strengthening accountability within the acquisition system and particularly for the f35 enterprise. The department has made significant improvements since fleet availability over the past year. The department currently uses two main measures of fleet availability for the f35, Mission Capable rates and full Mission Capable rate. The department has increased the overall Mission Capable fleets for the f35 were mostly 60 of at the beginning of the year to nearly 70 in june. The department has similarly improved the full Mission Capability fleet rate from the low 35 at the beginning of the year to nearly 40 in june. While more work remains to be done to meet or fighter needs these improvements in fleet availability written primarily by improvements in maintainability and supply chain efficiency demonstrate the departments efforts and are having a significant and measurable impact. On the ready for issue part concerns raised by the dod Inspector General there july 2019 report found the department did not ensure that the contractor was providing spare parts and ready for issue states. The report also identified the department did not ensure the payments to Lockheed Martin were properly tied to performance against ready for issue metrics. The department incurred was all the department of defenses specter general recommendation and has aggressively implemented corrective actions based on a followup status reports provided to dod ig in january 2020 and subsequent conversations with dod ig representatives. The issues raised in the dod ig report are primarily issued of electronic records management. This is related to known deficiencies in the ability of the f35 logistics Information Systems ability to accurately and reliably track and transmit electronic equipment log, el files. The department has taken nearterm action to address key d graders are ready for issue rfi rates. But the longterm solution to the problem depends on the already underway efforts to replace alice with a more stable, capable system. As a result of those nearterm actions the department has increased the rfi rate at the air force base, Luke Air Force base and Marine Corps Air station at yuma from 42 in february to exceeding the rfi threshold metric rate of 70 and every month since april. This achieves a high of 82 in june. In may this committee spoke to unit commanders from the three services about the effects that ready for issue parts issued were having on the units under their command. I have also spoken directly with these f35 commanders to hear their feedback and suggestions for improvement. As a result, i will ensure that corrective action will drive a System Architecture and capability that meets war fighter needs and enables art maintainers to suspend their time keeping aircraft available rather than manually working around those flawed electronic records systems. On generate 14, 2020 i announced to the House Armed ServicesCommittee Members the transition from alice to a new government owned system, Operational Data integrated network called odin. Department will introduce the first voting capabilities fleetwide by the end of 2021 and in the interim the department has been working to develop solutions to the legacy alice system to improve accuracy, tracking and transmission, performance to reduce Maintenance Work around and mitigate potential risks of the fleet. Dod ig reports identified an existing contract terms were not sufficient to hold the prime contractor accountable for the deficiencies. Ecma has been working closely with the f35 to negotiate fair consideration to the government from the prime contractor for these deficiencies. Ecma notified Lockheed Martin of its intent to seek consideration on april 2 and formal discussion began on may 7. Ecmas path to see considerations for not rfi parts delivered between the beginning of 2015 and april 30, 2020 and to incorporate terms into the next annualized st