At least one senior Pentagon official has decided to openly chastise lawmakers who would imperil DOD’s Joint Strike Fighter plans—specifically the elimination of a second engine maker and the buy approach. Acquisition chief Ken Krieg told Reuters news service that the unified front by Capitol Hill to restore funding for a second F-35 engine could force the services to reduce how many fighters they can buy. And, on point 2, Krieg told Reuters that slowing the program—effectively the result of a move by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to cut $1.2 billion in 2007 from JSF—would negatively affect suppliers and the program’s international partners.
The Space Force relies entirely on data—but it lacks the systems and tools to analyze and share that data properly even within the service, let alone with international partners, officials said May 1.