The Air Force’s F-35 program continues to fall short of the Pentagon’s combat readiness goals, a senior DOD official told Congress Wednesday.
“No F-35 variant meets the specified reliability or maintainability metrics,” Robert Behler, director of the DOD Operational Test and Evaluation Office, told a House Armed Services subcommittee, according to Military.com. “The aircraft are breaking more often and taking longer to fix.”
F-35 performance is increasing but will not meet the Pentagon’s 80% combat-readiness goal this year, Behler and other DOD leaders said.
A Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday concluded that “DOD must continue to grapple with affordability as it takes actions to increase the readiness of the F-35 fleet and improve its sustainment efforts.”
Air Force photo by Airman Brooke Moeder
Final Appropriations Deadline Approaches
Friday is the deadline for Congress to pass the final six appropriations bills for the current fiscal year. The defense appropriations bill is part of the package. Punchbowl News reported this morning that negotiators have finished work on defense spending and other...