Will The F-35 Learn From Past Missteps?
...congressional watchdogs are warning that risk lies ahead in the next increment of modernization, called Block 4, and that checks to ensure the program is accountable are lacking.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has recommended that the Block 4 program, based on its cost, should be declared a major defense acquisition program in its own right. GAO’s Michael Sullivan said the F-22 program introduced similar upgrades within the overall program. “Then a $2 billion estimate for those new capabilities became $11 billion, and there was no accountability,” he said.
Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation, told senators that current plans for Block 4 need to be “scrubbed rigorously.”
“The program’s proposed ‘F-35 Modernization Planning Schedule’ is overly optimistic and does not properly align with the program’s current software development schedule, which is also unrealistic,” Gilmore says in his written testimony.
The program recently said Block 4 will require new processors at a cost of $700 million that must now be factored into fiscal 2018 budget plans. The first Block 4 software release is planned for late 2020, but it doesn’t propose to correct deficiencies to the previous Block 3F software. That kind of schedule adds risk, Gilmore says.
Whether the program has learned the lessons of its past acquisition problems, stemming from plans that proved to be too good to be true, remains to be seen.
“I see a number of unrealistic expectations with Block 4,” Gilmore said. “They should take a look at those issues. That will be a good test.”
Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) unsuccessfully attempted to add a provision to the defense authorization bill that would make Block 4 its own major acquisition program during the House Armed Services Committee’s April 27 markup. She drew a parallel to the F-22 program, saying the Pentagon initially resisted separating modernization from that advanced fighter effort. After billions of dollars in cost growth and delays, Congress stepped in to require F-22 modernization to be broken out in 2013. Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), who leads the air and land forces subcommittee, argued that creating the separate program for the F-35’s Block 4 would add about $13 million to the program’s cost and delay delivery of the software by about a year. Overall the committee agreed with him, voting 41 to 20 to reject the amendment.
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