By Amaani Lyle
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON – Senior leaders from the Air Force and Navy
affirmed yesterday that the F-35 joint strike fighter remains the centerpiece
of the tactical aircraft program and will play a large part in the services’
ongoing modernization plans.
Navy Vice Adm. David J. Venlet, F-35
Lightning II program executive officer, told the Senate Armed Services
Committee’s airland subcommittee that the F-35’s basic engine designs were
deemed sound and deliverable after a battery of tests and observations over the
past year.
“While there is still risk in the
program, it is risk-balanced,” Venlet said. “I have confidence in the
resilience of the plan to absorb further learning discovery and stay on track.”
Still, Venlet said, the program will
“not execute itself,” and will require resources, tools and processes to enable
disciplined decisions on development and incremental capability delivery.
Technical and cost issues exist, the
admiral acknowledged, but he added that the joint strike fighter’s enhanced
capability can be the backbone of fifth-generation fighters.
Carrier test pilots conducting
approaches at Patuxent River, Md., have lauded the handling characteristics of
the F-35’s aircraft carrier variant, he said, and short takeoff and vertical
landing results have demonstrated solid performance.
“It is a testimony to the very effective
and impressive marriage of engine and airframe,” Venlet said, adding that
measures will stay in place to ensure the program’s long-term effectiveness.
“Rigorous management control by the joint program office, supported by the
service system commands, will be applied with a … focus on production and
affordable delivery capability -- our only meaningful external result.”
Navy Vice Adm. W. Mark Skinner,
principal military deputy in the office of the assistant secretary of the Navy
for research, development and acquisition, said affordability will be a key
focus in delivering capabilities.
“During these austere times, we must
persist in modernizing and recapitalizing our naval aviation forces and
increase our capability through force multipliers, such as the Navy Integrated
Fire Control Counter-Air and using ‘should-cost/will-cost’ processes to bring
more affordable systems to our warfighters,” Skinner said.
Lt. Gen. Janet C. Wolfenbarger,
assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, told the panel the fiscal
2013 budget aligns with the Air Force’s tactical aviation program as the
service shifts its national security strategy to counter modern-day threats.
“Our rapidly aging aircraft fleet drives
the urgent need to balance procurement of new inventory with sustainment of our
current fleet,” Wolfenbarger said.
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