Another delay in F-35 acquisition is expected to boost costs by another $1 billion, drawing criticism from the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., sent a letter to Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday asking him to address how the program’s delay reconciles with recent assertions that the schedule is still on track.
“I am extremely disappointed to learn of yet another delay in the completion of the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase of the F-35 Joint Strike Program with an associated cost overrun that may be upwards of $1 billion,” McCain wrote. “This latest setback appears to call into question some of the recent determinations and actions of Department of Defense senior leaders regarding the development of this critical but troubled program.”
McCain said the newly-announced delay does not mesh with assertions from Defense Department officials, including the F-35 Program Executive Officer Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, that development would be completed by “late 2017” and would not require additional money.
Others inside the Pentagon, however, predicted the delays as early as last year. When the director of operational test and evaluation, J. Michael Gilmore, testified at McCain’s committee in April, he said operational tests would not be begin until mid-calendar year 2018 at the earliest.
“This warning appears to have been quite prescient,” McCain wrote.
McCain asked Carter to respond to 10 questions, including when the system development and demonstration phase would be completed, what priorities won’t be funded in fiscal 2018 to make up for this cost overrun and if any capabilities will slip to the modernization program instead of initial acquisition.
The F-35 has been consistently plagued by problems, from ejection seats that could hurt or kill lighter-weight pilots to $400,000 helmets that caused a “green glow” when flying at night.
