A key Air Force official yesterday emphasized the importance of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to the United States in light of the Defense Department’s quadrennial review of strategies and priorities in 2014.
Air Force Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) Director Maj. Gen. Steven Kwast said the development of the F-35 is crucial because as technology proliferates that makes benign areas contentious, the United States needs to be able to project power anywhere.
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| Air Force Quadrennial Defense Review Director Maj. Gen. Steven Kwast. Photo: Air Force. |
“That journey includes a lot of different mechanisms to do that and the Joint Strike Fighter is one of them,” Kwast said yesterday at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington.
The QDR sets a long-term course for DoD as it assesses the threats and challenges that the United States faces. It also re-balances DoD’s strategies, capabilities and forces to address today’s conflicts and tomorrow’s threats, according to the Pentagon. CSIS Senior Vice President and Director of the International Security Program David Berteau yesterday described the QDR as a look at requirements independent of resources.
Kwast said there is a lesson to be learned for future QDRs from massive acquisition programs, like the F-35, that start in eras of growing budgets but end up in periods of declining budgets. But he also cautioned against taking an eye off of future requirements when considering finances.
“We have to be careful not to boomerang in a way that steals from us the capacity and capability to project power as a constant along this journey of discovery and lessons,” Kwast said. “We have to be able to project power in contested environments and the Joint Strike Fighter is that machine.”
The F-35 is considered the most expensive weapons program in history. DoD in May estimated the total price tag for 2,443 jets for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps at $391 billion (Defense Daily, June 3).
Kwast also suggested against the idea that the Air Force in the QDR might emphasize a move away from manned aircraft and toward remotely piloted aircraft (RPA). Though the Air Force has increased the use of RPAs for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions over the years, officials have warned that RPAs are not a cure-all as they won’t survive contested airspace.
“This is a sober stare straight into the eye of science and technology (S&T) and of what’s practical, what’s ready and making sure that we do not take any steps to grab onto a branch of the future that is insufficient before we let go of a branch of today,” Kwast said.