By Marina Malenic
NEW YORK–For the first time, a senior U.S. defense official has said that a variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter being built for the Marine Corps could be on the chopping block.
Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Pentagon is studying whether the short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the F-35 that Lockheed Martin [LMT] is building for the Marines is still a financially viable endeavor.
“It’s a question of [spending] balance,” Cartwright told a group of investors at a conference here sponsored by Credit Suisse and Aviation Week.
“How critical is [the capability]?” he added. “And if we can’t buy at scale, do we want to pay the premium?”
Lockheed Martin is building three versions of the F-35 for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as for several foreign militaries. The A model, to be flown by the Air Force, takes off and lands conventionally; the Marine Corps is to fly the STOVL-variant B model; and the C model is to be flown from carriers by Navy fighter pilots.
The United Kingdom, which had been the Pentagon’s most significant international partner in the venture until earlier this fall, had plans to purchase the STOVL version of the aircraft. However, in October London released its Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR), which recommends cutting defense spending by eight percent over four years. In that review, the number of F-35s to be acquired is reduced, and the B model is dropped in favor of the carrier variant (Defense Daily, Oct. 29).
Since then, the chairmen of President Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform have unveiled draft proposals for balancing the nation’s budget. They recommended substituting new F-16s and F/A-18Es for half of the Air Force and Navy’s planned F-35 buys and killing the Marine Corps variant (Defense Daily, Nov. 19).
Defense Secretary Robert Gates was briefed early last month on new cost and schedule assessments for the troubled program. He was told at the time that delivery of the fighter could be delayed by another one to three years and cost $5 billion more than the most recently released estimates indicate (Defense Daily, Nov. 3). And, on Nov. 22, the Defense Department’s F-35 program manager, Vice Adm. David Venlet, presented the department’s Defense Acquisition Board with a new “technical baseline review” of the development and testing effort. Another DAB review is pending, and top Pentagon weapons buyer Ashton Carter has said the per-unit cost of the aircraft must be reduced.
Speaking at the same conference in New York as Cartwright, Lockheed Martin’s executive vice president for aeronautics noted that flight tests for the B model are behind schedule and that the company is “making adjustments” accordingly. Asked whether his company’s business would suffer if the Pentagon opted to cancel development of the B-model, Ralph Heath said “it is the customer’s decision as to what they want to buy.”
Meanwhile, Cartwright also revealed that the Defense Department’s budget will likely decline over the next several years rather than realize one percent annual growth as advocated by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Gates earlier this year announced a department-wide “efficiency initiative” to find $100 billion in savings from overhead over five years that would be reapplied to top battlefield priorities for the armed serviced. However, Cartwright said those savings are likely to be reallocated within the federal government.
Asked how high his confidence was that the department would keep its $100 billion “savings,” he said “zero.”
“I think some of that will migrate out,” he said.
The general noted that, historically, the defense department has experienced 15 percent to 20 percent budget declines after prolonged periods of war. He did not specify how large he thought the coming downturn might be.
Cartwright added that fiscal pressures and the dramatic pace of technological advancement are forcing the military to buy more affordable weapons and get them to the front faster.