By Air Force News Agency on Thursday, June 20th, 2013
Joint strike fighter not off course, costs coming down, Kendall says
Indications are that the F-35 joint strike fighter program — the costliest aviation program in Defense Department history — is heading in the right direction, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics told a Senate panel here June 19.
Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee this morning, Frank Kendall said the F-35 would be the premier strike aircraft for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
“The department’s and my focus was at the efforts to manipulate costs at the program, and to reach a more stable design in order that lets increase the production rate to more cost effective quantities,” Kendall told the senators. “Indications today are that these efforts are succeeding.”
The program, begun in President George W. Bush’s administration, is ready 90 percent throughout the development program and 40 percent through flight testing.
Kendall said he anticipates with the ability to complete the advance effort in the planned cost and schedule.
“However, we may wish to make some adjustments as events unfold,” he added. “On the entire, however, the F-35 design today is far more stable than it was two or three years ago.”
Production of the aircraft was in real jeopardy in 2011 amid uncertainty in how design issues could be solved, the undersecretary said.
“The F-35 is without doubt one of the most concurrent programs i’ve ever seen, meaning that there’s a high degree of overlap between the advance phase and the production phase of this system,” he said.
Kendall said he believes those questions was answered, and he told the committee he’s going to review this system later this year to determine whether to extend the production rate significantly in 2015, as is currently planned.
“At this point, i’m cautiously optimistic that we are going to have the capacity to accomplish that,” he said.
Costs per aircraft are coming down, Kendall said. “Since 2010, production costs has been stable and are coming down, … roughly in step with our estimates,” he said. “We was tightening the terms of production contracts.”
The aircraft builder, Lockheed-Martin, is needed to share costs linked to design changes caused by concurrency, and the Defense Department is negotiating the following two buys.
“In these lots, and all future lots, Lockheed will bear each of the risks of overruns,” Kendall said. “At this point we’ve got a great understanding of the production costs, and believe that they’re under control.”
The undersecretary said he believes sustainment costs represent the best opportunity to minimize life cycle costs of the F-35 going forward.
“We are actually serious about the right way to introduce competition, and to take creative steps to lower those costs in addition,” he said. “The base line is that since 2010, we have got been making steady progress to finish development, stabilize the design, and control costs.”
Much continues to be done with this system, and surprises should still happen, Kendall acknowledged, but he added that he’s “cautiously optimistic that we are going to be capable of increase production to more cost effective rates beginning in 2015 as planned.”
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