The House Armed Services Committee on April 29 shut down an attempt to cut funding for six F-35As from the fiscal year 2016 defense authorization bill.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) offered an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would cut $588.5 million–the cost of six Air Force joint strike fighters manufactured by Lockheed Martin [LMT]–and transfer it to the National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account . It would leave untouched the six Marine Corps F-35B planes added to the budget by HASC to meet a request by Marine Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford in his unfunded priorities list.
The amendment would have trimmed Air Force procurement from 44 to 38 jets in 2016.
F-35 production was scheduled to increase from 38 planes in fiscal year 2015 to 57 the next, and adding more aircraft to that is risky in light of problems with the aircraft’s sensors and engine discussed in reports by the Government Accountability Office, Defense Department Inspector General and the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, Speier said.
“Despite the warning signs, I was troubled to see in the chairman’s mark that we added an additional six f-35 aircraft on top of the 57 aircraft already in the budget request,” she said during the full committee markup of Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee’s NDAA proposal. “I know that this is an important program, but we do need to be prudent by not adding planes to an already very aggressive production ramp up.”
Subcommittee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) strongly opposed the measure, as did many lawmakers from Texas and Florida, which are home to Lockheed Martin facilities.
“The numbers that we picked are both to make certain that we meet the national security goals of the program, “ as well as providing oversight to the program, he said. Turner’s subcommittee mark included requirements to assess the F-35’s engine and logistics program.
Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) said 80 percent of the savings that will be found on the program are the result of an increase in production quantity.
“This is the first program in about five years that we’re going to see a significant ramp up in production,” he said. “The F-35 has been performing very closely to the plan since the program [was] rebaselined.”
Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) also spoke against the amendment.
At points, the exchanges between Turner and Speier became heated. Speier asked Turner whether he disagreed with the findings of the GAO and other oversight entities.
“No,” Turner replied. “If you would have attended the hearing where they appeared before us … you would have heard that the GAO actually praised the accomplishments that have been made.”
Speier countered, “Let me just thank the gentleman for your obnoxious comments.”
HASC also passed a package of amendments that would require Defense Department officials to brief the committee on Bradley fighting vehicle modernization, electro-optical/infrared capability on the next generation Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, and Army research and development efforts to improve the range of tactical vehicles without increasing fuel consumption.