The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) on Wednesday easily batted down an amendment to the 2017 defense authorization bill that would require the Defense Department to separate the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s block 4 modernization effort from the overall program of record, effectively creating a new major acquisition program.
HASC lawmakers voted 41-20 to oppose the amendment, offered by Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). The vote was split primarily down party lines, although eight Democrats voted against the measure.
The Defense Department plans to spend $3 billion over six years on the Block 4 modernization program, which would normally classify it as a major defense acquisition program (MDAP), Duckworth noted.
“By treating block 4 procurement as a separate acquisition program it would set in motion increased oversight mechanisms that include periodic reporting of the program’s cost, schedule and performance progress,” she said.
She cited the Government Accountability Office’s concerns that the department’s current plan could help obscure any cost or schedule growth associated with the modernization. GAO had similar apprehension about the F-22’s modernization initiative, which the department included in the overall program. Later, the watchdog office found that cost ballooned by more than $6 million and the delivery timeline was delayed by seven years, Duckworth said.
Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the HASC tactical air and land subcommittee, opposed the measure, reiterating concerns from F-35 program officials that a separate program could entail an extra $13 million and up to a year in delays.
“The thing people need to understand looking at this amendment is this would not help. It would hurt. This is not simple. This is complex,” he said. “This delay would impact schedules for international partners and it would result in a delay for dual capable aircraft.”
The joint program office has created a separate contract for the F-35 block 4 effort to provide more visibility into the effort’s cost and progress, Turner noted. It would also seek a separate independent cost estimate for the program.
An endorsement from the joint program office is not a guarantee that the program will progress as intended, Duckworth countered.
HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), who opposed the amendment, said the underlying question was whether the amendment would help the program. Ultimately, the potential addition of cost and schedule delay could further impact the military services’ readiness issues because pilots could find themselves without the technologies needed to accomplish their mission.
After a Senate hearing on Tuesday, the top F-35 program official told reporters that the department continues to support consolidating the block 4 mods within the existing program. That decision was not made to avoid oversight, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, F-35 joint program executive officer.
“We are absolutely willing to put every single metric, every single cost, schedule, performance indices…and even the Nunn-McCurdy criteria on follow on modernization,” he said. “What I don’t want is…a new program in the building.”
That would entail having to redo most of the documentation for the effort, pushing its schedule to the right, he has said (Defense Daily, March 23).
Even though the measure failed in HASC, it could reappear in conference when the House and Senate reconcile their versions of the defense authorization bill. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) indicated on Tuesday that he could oppose department efforts to keep the modernization effort within the F-35 program.
“The department appears to be considering managing the F-35 follow-on modernization, which is estimated to cost over $8 billion for the first block upgrade, within the overall F-35 program,” he said in his opening statement during a SASC hearing on the program. “This is incredible given the department’s dismal track record on these upgrade programs, as the F-22A modernization and upgrade debacle showed. I have seen no evidence that DoD’s processes have improved to a level that would remove the need for a separate major defense acquisition program that would enable close scrutiny by Congress.”
The Joint Requirements Oversight Council will approve the block 4 modernization requirements this summer, and the department also will approve an acquisition during that time period, Bodgan said.
The F-35 is built by Lockheed Martin [LMT].