QUESTIONS ABOUT COSTS, FORCE MIX COULD SPELL TROUBLE FOR F-35A.

• Date: 01 June 2021
• Author: Mayfield, Mandy
• Published date: 01 June 2021
• Author: Mayfield, Mandy

Following years of ups and downs, the Air Force's F-35A joint strike fighter is once again embroiled in controversy as questions emerge about costs, the future employment of the aircraft and how many the service needs for high-end fights.

The Pentagon, lawmakers and some of the nation's top defense contractors appear to be at odds over how best to move forward with the fifth-generation aircraft, which has been dogged by a number of issues throughout its history.

Todd Harrison, director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the sentiment around the program has started to shift both within the Defense Department and in Congress.

"For the past seven years, the F-35 program has kind of been riding high, especially in Congress," he said in an interview. "What has held back the F-35 program in the more recent years is just the availability of funding within DoD, but now I think the sentiment is starting to shift, because folks are starting to question the operation and sustainment costs of the platform."

The Pentagon and lawmakers are closely examining the aircraft's costs because of overall budget constraints, he said.

"They're also starting to look at alternatives, [such as] remotely piloted systems and sixth-gen concepts for fighter jets," he said. "Members in Congress are looking at costs and looking at the sacrifices [and] the cuts that will have to be made to existing legacy aircraft in order to accommodate buying the full planned number of F-35s."

Currently, the Air Force plans to procure 1,763 F-35 As over the course of the program.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, urged his fellow committee members in March to find a way to "cut our losses" on the F-35 program.

"I want to stop throwing money down that particular rat-hole," he said at a Brookings Institution event.

Rep. Donald Norcross, D-NJ., chairman of the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee, declared in April during a joint hearing on the F-35 program that he would not support plussing up joint strike fighter procurement in the upcoming fiscal year 2022 budget--as Congress has done in recent years--unless a number of issues with the aircraft are addressed.

"The tactical air and land subcommittee has been supportive of this program in the past, but as we've said many times, we don't have unlimited resources," he said. "If this program continues to fail to significantly control and reduce actual and projected sustainment costs, we may need to invest in other, more...