Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) asked Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England an obvious question during the committee’s second hearing on the plan to eliminate the alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Warner wanted to know how the Pentagon could issue a $2.5 billion long-term production contract just last August, then decide a few months later to cancel it. England called the decision the “leading edge” of some hard budget choices for DOD. He claimed that, unlike the “great engine war” of the 1980s, this new arrangement would yield no competition savings and only some production savings in the year 2025. It would, maintained England, lead to procurement delays. He added, “I do not believe that is beneficial for any of the countries involved.”
As Air Force leaders consider concepts of operations for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, sustainment in the field—and easing that support by using standard parts and limiting variants—should be a key consideration, according to a new study from AFA's Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies.