Congress Cuts Joint Strike Fighter Money

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InsideDefense.com NewsStand | John T. Bennett | December 30, 2005

Defense appropriations conferees last week agreed to a final version of a fiscal year 2006 defense spending bill that reduces the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter funding request by $200 million.

The Air Force’s FY-06 spending plan, sent to lawmakers in February, sought a total of $2.6 billion for the multiservice JSF program. That amount included $200 million to fund long-lead items for the purchase of five aircraft in FY-07, according to Pentagon budget documents. The Navy also sought more than $2 billion for its portion of the fighter program.

The conferees ultimately sided, in large part, with a Senate-approved plan to reduce the Pentagon’s overall JSF request by $270 million

The plan would scale back the Pentagon’s requested JSF research, development, testing and engineering funding level by $108 million. The Senate-passed appropriations bill called for a larger $270 million reduction. The House’s defense spending bill fully funded the Pentagon’s $2.4 billion JSF RDT&E request.

The report accompanying the conferees’ FY-06 defense appropriations bill contains no language explaining the JSF reduction. But in a separate September report on the version of the defense spending Legislation that was later approved by the full chamber, the Senate Appropriations Committee said “continuing uncertainties” surround the joint Air Force-Navy program, making it “difficult to estimate the resources needed for the program.”

The Air Force has indicated it plans to buy 1,763 JSFs, while the Navy and Marine Corps have said they intend to purchase a total of 680. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley recently said his service might not purchase that many, but indicated a final decision on the size of the F-35 buy has not yet been made.

The Senate appropriators determined a sizable JSF reduction was needed because Pentagon officials still are tinkering with designs for each variant of the next-generation fighter, the report states. It appears Senate conferees were successful in at least partly convincing their House counterparts that a reduction was warranted.

“The program is still redesigning the three JSF variants and is examining the need for changes in the software development and flight test programs to make them more executable,” the Senate panel’s September report notes. “Until the redesign efforts are complete, the committee is not committed to significant increases in program funding for system development.”

For JSF advancement procurement, the conferees sliced the Pentagon’s requested amount by $30 million.

The Pentagon fervently appealed that request this fall, saying the provision, included in the House’s FY-06 defense authorization bill, would have generated a spike in F-35 “development and production costs” and would trigger a delay in the three service’s scheduled operational capability milestone decisions.

Some House lawmakers earlier this year expressed concerns over efforts to pare down the fighter’s total weight of the conventional takeoff and landing JSF variant. The first JSF flight is scheduled for next August, but the Air Force has indicated that test will feature a JSF that lacks the modifications made to the design over the last year to bring down the CTOL variant’s weight.

In a related development, another group of House and Senate conferees who met last weekend agreed on a final version of FY-06 defense authorization legislation opted to fully fund the Pentagon’s JSF RDT&E and advanced procurement funding requests for this fiscal year, according to congressional budget documents released last week.

Meanwhile, the defense appropriations conferees agreed to a Pentagon plan to purchase 24 F-22A Raptors in FY-06 -- but the lawmakers also directed the Pentagon to submit several reports about the next-generation fighter program next year.

The compromise version of the appropriations bill directs the Pentagon to “report to the congressional defense committees by March 30 on alternatives for the continued acquisition of the [F-22A],” the conference report states. That report should cover a range of issues, including:

* An assessment of the “advantages of a multiyear procurement program”;

* Extending the Raptor procurement profile; and

* The expected effects F-22A procurement plans might have on the JSF production line.

The final point is a subject several senior Air Force leaders have recently shown particular interest in addressing.

The Air Force likely will expand its F-22A program by four jets, a move that would keep the Raptor production line “warm” until Lockheed Martin begins building the service’s Joint Strike Fighter around 2010, service Secretary Michael Wynne and Moseley told reporters.

The appropriations conferees also included language in the final version of the bill that would require the Air Force to submit a plan next year to lawmakers about a “competitive solution” to using titanium on the fighters, saying “industry trends in the titanium market could have [potential effects] for the Lot 8 F-22A aircraft.”