Daniel Conroy, Lockheed Martin’s director of the USAF F-35 program, has an optimistic message. He has told the Tampa Tribune that the F-35 program is back on schedule (the 2012 schedule).
“You don’t get through any flight test program, especially one as complex as this, without having a few things that you just go, ‘Wow, I wouldn’t have thought of that,'” said Conroy. “But the good news is there hasn’t been anything insurmountable. We’ve worked through things pretty quickly.”
Lockheed Martin also has other news on the F-35 front. Assembly has begun on the first Japanese-built F-35.
Meanwhile, the Congressional Research Service is warning in a new report that the USAF faces a funding crunch from its future procurements, including the F-35. Report author J.J. Gertler pointed out that four procurement programs – the F-35A, the KC-46, C-130, and unmanned aerial vehicles – “account for 99% of the Air Force’s aircraft acquisition budget” next year. Then there are a host of other procurements the USAF has planned. “The net effect of starting these new programs atop a full procurement budget is a classic ‘bow wave’ of procurement, with increasing numbers of programs with growing budgets all trying to fit within a fixed budget topline at the same time while building requirements for increased future funding,” Gertler pointed out.
More details can be read here:
