By Emelie Rutherford
Pentagon acquisition executive John Young last week signed a memo approving the purchased of six conventional-takeoff-and-landing F-35 Joint Strike Fighters for the Air Force, a source familiar with the matter said.
The acquisition decision memo (ADM) from Young also conditionally OK’s buying six short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOL) variants, but says that purchase cannot be finalized until the STOVL jet has a successful first flight, the source said.
The STOVL variant, intended for use for the Marine Corps, is expected to undergo its first flight–in conventional mode–in the May/June timeframe.
Young’s ADM comes after a March 26 Defense Acquisition Board meeting on allowing the developmental JSF program to enter Low Rate Initial Production II. Lockheed Martin is building the airframes. Young, in the ADM, releases approximately $243 million, in already appropriated fiscal year 2008 dollars, for long-lead items for LRIP III, the source said. The memo also directs the Cost Analysis Improvement Group to conduct a JSF review and provide a cost estimate of the program between 2010 and 2015, the source said.