Navy chief optimistic F-35 will enter fleet on schedule
The service will benefit from being third in line to receive the fighter jets, top officer says.
The Navy's top officer on Tuesday expressed hope that the aircraft carrier-based version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will not have the same prolonged delays that are plaguing the Air Force's variant of the stealthy jet.
During an interview at the Pentagon, Chief of Naval Operations Gary Roughead said the Navy is reviewing recent program changes, but he believes the Navy will benefit from being the last of the services to receive the F-35 and, ultimately, will stick close to its 2014 date for initial operational use.
"I think we, as a service, have the advantage in that we're third in line," Roughead said. "And I'm not looking at life through rose-colored glasses, but I think we're in a better position to perhaps stay close to our IOC [initial operational capability] because there's a lot of work being done to keep the other people on IOC and minimize that [delay]," he added.
As a result of delays in the program's development, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley has said his service's date for initial operational use will slip from fiscal 2013 to late calendar year 2015.
Donley said at a breakfast Tuesday that the decision to push back the Air Force's schedule came after the Defense Department reviewed independent estimates that pointed to significant schedule delays and price increases on the aircraft program.
"We're still working through all the implications of the program adjustments going forward," he said. "That work is ongoing."
Meanwhile, the Marine Corps, the first service to receive the fighters, plans to stick to its 2012 date for operational use, a spokesman said Tuesday. The service has not modernized its fighter fleet in more than a decade.
"We're really [eager] to have the Joint Strike Fighter come online when it's supposed to with the capacities that we believe it has," Marine Corps Commandant James Conway told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.
For fiscal 2011, the Pentagon is requesting $8.7 billion in procurement funding to buy 43 F-35s, plus $2.3 billion for continued research and development and $535 million for spare parts.
All told, the three services will buy more than 2,400 F-35s to replace aging F-16s, F-18s, AV-8s and A-10s, making the F-35 the largest program on the Pentagon's books.
"The JSF program is going to be a program that's going to be very, very closely scrutinized and watched and monitored," Roughead said. "There should be no question that we in the Navy have to get to that airplane."
As it awaits the F-35, the Navy is trying to manage a strike fighter shortfall, which Roughead estimates is at about 100 aircraft.
The admiral says he plans to mitigate the shortfall by breathing life into older F-18 Hornets through a service-life extension program, which would add a few years of operations to the planes. He dismissed any efforts to buy more of the popular F/A-18E/F Super Hornets than are now planned, saying that doing so is simply not affordable given other budget pressures.
"I think all too often people deal with specific programmatic issues and you get into, 'It's only this for that'," Roughead said. "You really do lose sight of ... where do you get that additional amount of money and what suffers as a result of that."
But the Navy still plans to buy 66 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets between fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2013. Those planes could become part of a multiyear procurement deal with maker Boeing Co. that also would include 58 EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft based on the same airframe.
On Monday, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn asked Congress for an extension of its March 1 deadline for a decision on a multiyear purchase agreement for F/A-18s, saying officials need to review the Boeing's offer to determine if a long-term commitment is cost effective.
Roughead said he supports a multiyear pact if the Pentagon can verify Boeing's claims that it will cut 10 percent off the costs of the jets. He also said he expects officials to decide on the matter quickly.
"I'm of the mind that we want to get it done fast and not to draw this out because if we're granted the extension I don't want to abuse that consideration that they've given us," he said.