The new plan to buy 244 of the planes in the next five years — down from the previously scheduled 423 — would reduce funding by $15 billion during that period, he said.
“We’re in the reality of tight fiscal constraints,” DellaVedova said.
The cost comes in part because the plane, which will modernize the attack fleet, is tailored to the needs of multiple armed services including the U.S. and its allies.
A staff of 105 people in the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, including representatives of partner nations in the F-35 program, support the Air Force portion of the program, working with the Virginia office.
Cost overruns and schedule delays have increased the F-35 program’s total projected costs by at least $150 billion during the past 10 years, said U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a supporter of the F-35 who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee. The committee will closely examine what the Pentagon is doing along with the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp., to eliminate problems, the senator said.
“It’s apparent that the program entered into system development and production without its critical technologies fully mature,” Portman said.
The Obama administration has said that delaying early purchases of the F-35, which is still in flight testing on the East and West Coasts, will allow more time to work out problems and make any design changes needed. Eliminating those problems could reduce maintenance and redesign expenses later, Pentagon officials said.
President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget confirms Washington’s long-term plan to buy 2,443 of the planes, for a total of $382 billion, during 30 years to modernize the fleets of the Air Force, Army and Navy.
That includes three versions: the Air Force’s conventional takeoff model, a Navy model adapted to land and lift off from aircraft carriers, and a Marine variant designed for short takeoffs and vertical landings.
The F-35’s increasing costs have been a concern for years, but Washington has little alternative because the Pentagon and U.S. allies are relying on the plane and its improved radar-evading technology for fighting future wars, defense industry analysts said.
“The administration has to figure out a way to make the program work,” said Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has estimated it will cost an additional $650 billion to operate and maintain the F-35s for the presumed 50-year life cycle, pushing the program’s total cost to more than $1 trillion.
The GAO, an investigative arm of Congress, told lawmakers in a March 2008 report that the F-35 program’s costs had increased by $23 billion during just the prior year.
“If it gets much worse, you run the risk of a death spiral,” said Richard Aboulafia, a defense analyst with Teal Group Corp. in Fairfax, Va.
Despite the Obama administration’s commitment, future administrations could change the number of F-35s that the United States ultimately buys.
Through the years, that total could be affected by changes in threats to U.S. security, technology developments and revamped structuring and deployment of U.S. forces, as well as increased costs for the plane, Aboulafia said.
Lockheed Martin said it appreciates Obama’s commitment to the F-35 program, even with the reduction of purchases in the early years.
The company will work with the administration to make any program changes as efficiently as possible, Lockheed spokeswoman Laurie Quincy said.
“We believe the program will stabilize around the new acquisition strategy,” Quincy said in email responses to questions from the Dayton Daily News. “And we are confident that we will deliver an effective and affordable program.”
Just last week, the F-35 program underwent another review by a Defense Department acquisition board under a federal law that automatically triggers such reviews if program costs rise to certain levels. The Defense Department is to issue a revised plan for the program to incorporate the board’s findings.
The F-35 will provide capabilities that some U.S. and allied forces don’t have, said DellaVedova, the program spokesman. Although the Air Force already flies stealth aircraft — the F-22 Raptor fighter — the Marines and Navy do not, he said.
Eight nations are partners in the F-35 development: United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Turkey. In addition, Israel and Japan have committed to buy the planes.
America’s long-term buy is to include 1,763 F-35s for the Air Force, 420 for the Marines (including carrier and vertical-takeoff versions) and 260 for the Navy.
The foreign purchases will drive that total to at least 3,100 of the planes, with Japan yet to specify its plans, DellaVedova said.
The plane’s testing, begun in December 2006, is estimated to be 20 percent complete. It is to wrap up in 2016, DellaVedova said.
The tests are ongoing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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