DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY CARTER ON F-35 FIGNTER PROGRAM

Photo:  U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter
FROM: AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICES

Carter Addresses Joint Strike Fighter ProgramBy Karen Parrish
TOKYO, July 21, 2012 - Many countries that are partnering with the United States in the F-35 joint strike fighter program will have a role to play in the aircraft's assembly, but the U.S. government will not decide which country does what, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said here today.

During a press conference with Japanese media representatives, Carter explained that the supersonic stealth fighter's prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp., will decide where the fighter's various manufacturing processes will be located, based on two factors: the partner nation's desire to participate in the aircraft's production, and economic efficiency.

Carter arrived in Japan on the first international stop of an Asia-Pacific tour that has already taken him to Hawaii and Guam, and will continue to Thailand, India and South Korea. He discussed the F-35 program while responding to a reporter's question on whether Japan will be the site of the aircraft's final assembly and check out.

Lockheed Martin officials have explained that process, known in the industry as FACO (Final Assembly and Checkout), which involves putting together the four major structural components of the airplane, installing the engines and electronics systems, and coding and test-flying the aircraft.

"The F-35 program is obviously very important to us," Carter said. "It's the linchpin of tactical aircraft inventories for the United States for decades to come, so we're completely committed to it."

The deputy secretary noted that in his previous position as the department's undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, managing the JSF program was one his central responsibilities.

"I wouldn't have told you this three years ago, but I can tell you now: I think it's getting on the path to finishing its development [and] ramping up to full-rate production," Carter said.

Nations currently partnering with the United States on the aircraft's development include the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Australia.

Many of those partners will participate in building the airplane, Carter noted.

"We can't all do everything; we can't all build all parts of the JSF," he said. "Otherwise, that will be economically inefficient, and we'll be wasting our taxpayers' money, and that's not fair."

What makes sense, the deputy secretary said, is for each country involved in producing the fighter to make some of the parts for all of the other partner nations.

"So it's a very complicated matter of apportioning, in an economically efficient way, all of these technical tasks," Carter said. "And that's what Lockheed Martin ... does in discussions with all the partners."

Defense Department leaders care about the outcome of manufacturing decisions "because we want an affordable airplane, as does the Japanese government," he said.

Carter added, "I'm sure that that will be done in a way that is satisfactory to Japan, just like it has to be satisfactory to the United States, has to be satisfactory to Turkey, to the U.K. ... That's the way international programs work today."

DEFENSE BACKS PRODUCTION OF F-35 STRIKE FIGHTER

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland look at the cockpit of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with Navy Capt. Erik "Rock" Etz on Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., Jan. 20, 2012. Panetta and Hoyer toured several facilities related to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is in its test phases at the base. DOD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo    



Officials Emphasize Commitment to Joint Strike Fighter
By Amaani Lyle
WASHINGTON, May 9, 2012 - Senior leaders from the Air Force and Navy affirmed yesterday that the F-35 joint strike fighter remains the centerpiece of the tactical aircraft program and will play a large part in the services' ongoing modernization plans.

Navy Vice Adm. David J. Venlet, F-35 Lightning II program executive officer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee's airland subcommittee that the F-35's basic engine designs were deemed sound and deliverable after a battery of tests and observations over the past year.

"While there is still risk in the program, it is risk-balanced," Venlet said. "I have confidence in the resilience of the plan to absorb further learning discovery and stay on track."

Still, Venlet said, the program will "not execute itself," and will require resources, tools and processes to enable disciplined decisions on development and incremental capability delivery.

Technical and cost issues exist, the admiral acknowledged, but he added that the joint strike fighter's enhanced capability can be the backbone of fifth-generation fighters.
Carrier test pilots conducting approaches at Patuxent River, Md., have lauded the handling characteristics of the F-35's aircraft carrier variant, he said, and short takeoff and vertical landing results have demonstrated solid performance.

"It is a testimony to the very effective and impressive marriage of engine and airframe," Venlet said, adding that measures will stay in place to ensure the program's long-term effectiveness. "Rigorous management control by the joint program office, supported by the service system commands, will be applied with a ... focus on production and affordable delivery capability -- our only meaningful external result."

Navy Vice Adm. W. Mark Skinner, principal military deputy in the office of the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said affordability will be a key focus in delivering capabilities.

"During these austere times, we must persist in modernizing and recapitalizing our naval aviation forces and increase our capability through force multipliers, such as the Navy Integrated Fire Control Counter-Air and using 'should-cost/will-cost' processes to bring more affordable systems to our warfighters," Skinner said.

Lt. Gen. Janet C. Wolfenbarger, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, told the panel the fiscal 2013 budget aligns with the Air Force's tactical aviation program as the service shifts its national security strategy to counter modern-day threats.
"Our rapidly aging aircraft fleet drives the urgent need to balance procurement of new inventory with sustainment of our current fleet," Wolfenbarger said.

U.S. OFFICIALS WANT THE F-35 FIGHTER EVEN WITH INCREASED COSTS

American Forces Press Service

Officials Reaffirm Pentagon's Commitment to F-35

By Donna Miles and Karen Parrish

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2012 - Estimated costs for the F-35 joint strike fighter have increased over the life of the program, but the Defense Department is working to contain cost growth and remains committed to the fifth-generation fighter, defense officials said today.

Frank Kendall III said during confirmation testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee that cost overruns for the stealth fighter are about $150 billion. Kendall is acting undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, and if confirmed will assume that position officially.

"We are doing everything we can to drive down the cost of the joint strike fighter," Kendall told committee members.

He noted the program is still in testing, with about 20 percent of that process complete.

"We are finding design issues as we go through the test program that we have to correct," he acknowledged. "So there are some cost adjustments associated with that."

Kendall outlined the department's actions to rein in the program's price tag.

"We are attacking the production costs by putting strong incentives on the contractor to control costs, to get the changes that have to be made cut in quickly," he said. Concurrent engineering design is one issue that has raised costs, he told the panel. In that approach, which is intended to develop a finished product faster, a new system may simultaneously be in engineering, production and testing processes, he explained.

"Most programs start production before they have completely finished their developmental tests," he said. "The question is how much."

The joint strike fighter was an "extreme example" of concurrency, he said, pointing out that production was started more than a year before the first flight tests.

Lessons learned during the F-35's development are now being applied to other systems, Kendall said. "What we are doing now is setting up exit criteria so that we don't make that production commitment until we are confident that the design is reasonably stable," he added.

Kendall cautioned, however, that the joint tactical vehicle and ground combat vehicle could experience cost overruns.

Given the design complexity and the urgency common to new defense equipment requirements, "I am not confident that any defense program will not experience overruns," he said.

The department now sets targets early for programs, Kendall said, which should help to force the supplier and the customer to meet target cost caps by making any necessary tradeoffs between cost and capability.

Kendall said he and his team also are working to contain sustainment costs, "which are larger actually than the production costs." Those costs represent the greatest potential cost cuts, he said, and the department will continue to pursue those savings.

"I do think that the strike fighter is getting under control," he added.

Kendall signed an acquisition decision memorandum yesterday on the F-35, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters today.

Little said in keeping with the Defense Department's better buying power initiative, which requires tracking affordability targets and costs associated with acquisition programs, the memorandum sets the current outlook for F-35 final per-unit costs in 2019, when the fifth-generation fighter is scheduled to reach full production.

In today's dollars, that cost is estimated at $81.4 million per aircraft, which when adjusted for inflation is estimated at $94.9 million in 2019 dollars, Little said.

Overall operating and support costs of the program are estimated at $1.1 trillion, up from last year's estimate of $1 trillion, the press secretary added.

Little noted some of that long-term increase comes from the department's decision, reflected in the 2013 defense budget request, to help in meeting requirements for short-term spending cuts by postponing purchase of some of the fighter aircraft.

"We remain fully committed to the F-35 program," Little said, echoing Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta's remarks March 27 during a visit to Canada's capital of Ottawa. "It's very important to our capabilities [and] to our alliances."

The United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Turkey, Israel and Singapore are partners or participants in the aircraft's development program, and the Japanese government announced in December it will buy 42 of the fighters.

"We are taking steps to ensure that we maintain fiscal discipline inside the program," Little said. Panetta has said Kendall and the department's acquisition, technology and logistics team have done an outstanding job working to contain costs for the stealth fighter, he added.

"This is a fifth-generation fighter," Little noted. "It's important for a variety of reasons: to maintain the U.S. military's technological edge, to increase interoperability with our allies, and ... for a range of other purposes."