Leaked documents from a Pentagon budget review suggest that the agency is uninterested in its costly F-35 fighter jets, and has thoughts about canceling the $391.2 billion program that has already expanded into 10 foreign countries.
Pentagon officials held a briefing on Wednesday wherein they mapped out how you can manage the $500 billion in automated budget cuts required over the following decade. A slideshow laid out several suggestions and exposed the Pentagon’s frustration with its F-35 jets, which might be designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp. based out of Bethesda, Md. The agency also suggested scrapping plans for a brand new stealthy, long-range bomber, attendees of the briefing told Reuters.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke to reporters on Wednesday and indicated that the Pentagon may need to choose between a “much smaller force” and a decade-long “holiday” from modernizing weapons systems and technology.
Pentagon briefing slides indicated that a choice to preserve a bigger military “could lead to the cancellation of the $392 billion Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 program and a brand new stealthy, long-range bomber,” Reuters reports.
When officials conversant in the budget review leaked the inside track concerning the F-35s, the agency tried to downplay its alleged intentions.
The F-35 program is the Pentagon’s most costly weapon system. A fleet of two,443 aircraft has an estimated price ticket of $391.2 billion, that is up 68 percent from the projected costs measured in 2001. Earlier this year, Air Force Lieutenant General Christopher Bogdan, the F-35 program manager, condemned the manufacturer for “trying to squeeze every nickel” out of the dep. of Defense.
Although the warplane is the costliest combat aircraft in history, its quality is lacking. In February, america military grounded a whole fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters by way of a crack found on a turbine blade on one of many jets, marking the fourth time that a fleet was grounded caused by manufacturing problems. In April, Bogdan told a Senate committee that he doubted the planes could withstand a complicated cyberattack.
But before the sequestration took effect this year, the Pentagon secured several contracts with Lockheed Martin to make certain the ongoing production and upkeep of the costly F-35s. This week, the Defense Department struck another tackle the corporate to provide 71 more jet fighters, claiming the prices per aircraft was reduced by about 4 percent – a mere reduction compared to the 68 percent price increase that has occurred since 2001.
After news broke of the Pentagon’s prospect to cancel this system, officials tried to regulate the wear and tear of such an alarming statement that runs counter to the claims they publicly make.
“We have gone to great lengths to emphasize that this review identified, through a rigorous means of strategic modeling, possible decisions we would face, under scenarios we may or won’t face one day,” Pentagon Spokesman George Little told Reuters in an email when asked in regards to the slides. “Any suggestion that we’re now moving clear of key modernization programs by reason of yesterday’s discussion of the results of the review could be incorrect.”
An unnamed defense official conversant in the briefing told Reuters that the leaked budget document indicated possibilities for a worst-case scenario. He admitted that the Pentagon considered scrapping this system, but said it was unlikely, since “cancelling this system could be detrimental to our national defense.”
Regardless of the Pentagon’s intent, Congress is liable for authorizing Department of Defense spending, and has often forced the agency to make costly and unnecessary weapons purchases.
Last year, US Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said that the united states has little need for brand spanking new tanks. But although senior Army officials have repeatedly stated that there’s no use to spend half one billion dollars in taxpayer funds on new 70-ton Abrams tanks, lawmakers from both parties have pushed the Pentagon to simply accept the useless purchases.
Earlier this year, an investigation revealed that lobbying efforts by Northrop Grumman have kept a costly Global Hawk drone flying, despite the Pentagon’s try to end the project. A defense authorization bill gone by Congress requires the Air Force to maintain flying its Block 30 Global Hawks through a minimum of 2014, which costs taxpayers $260 million per year.
The US spends extra cash on defense than some other nation, but lawmakers from both parties often insist that the agency continue to shop for tanks and keep ships and planes it now not needs. Although the Pentagon has expressed its frustration with the costly F-35 fighter jets, there’s little the agency can do without congressional support.
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