The leader of Air Combat Command told Congress on Wednesday that he does not support part of the Senate’s defense policy bill that would put services in charge of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter once it progresses past a certain point.
Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle said he is against the part of the Senate-passed fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act that would get rid of the F-35 Joint Program Office once the project reaches Milestone C, which is when full-rate production ramps up and deployment begins. Instead, management of the program after that point would fall to the services, three of which have their own variant of the aircraft made by Lockheed Martin.
“That is not something we’re in favor of,” Carlisle told a hearing of the House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee. “I do believe the program office will evolve and change … to one where some responsibilities are done by DoD or individual services, but the program office I believe still needs to be intact.”
The provision, which is not included in the House version of the bill, will need to be reconciled by negotiators from both chambers who began work on a final bill on Wednesday. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and chairman of the subcommittee, asked Carlisle to weigh in on the issue to inform the conference committee’s deliberations.
“It does seem as if the risk would be too great to devolve that to the services,” Turner said.
During its consideration of the bill, the House also debated separating out the modernization of the aircraft as its own major defense acquisition program. Supporters of the proposal argued that modernization of the Joint Strike Fighter is so expensive, it should qualify as a separate program. Those who supported keeping the modernization under the same umbrella, however, won and the proposal is not included in the final bill.
Carlisle said that’s a good thing, because the separation would have merely increased the cost and delayed how quickly new technology gets into the cockpit.
“It’s incredibly important that we get that capability and delaying it only moves our capability to defeat potential threats in the future farther to the right,” he said.
Rep. Paul Cook, R-Calif., asked Carlisle about a proposal to restart Lockheed Martin’s F-22 production line, which was cut drastically short of the planned buy due to budget concerns. Congress has asked the Air Force to look at the cost of doing so, and whether it’s a good option to fill the shortfall in fighter aircraft.
Carlisle said it’s possible, but not likely in the same form the airplane took in the past.
“The F-22 is a fantastic airplane,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a crazy idea to restart it. I do think that we probably would not bring an F-22 back in the form it is today, I think that’s technology that’s 30 years old, frankly.”
