WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) - Top U.S. Air Force and Navy officials backed the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet despite growing costs and delays in deliveries of test aircraft that prompted a major restructuring of the program earlier this year.
Officials from both services, grilled by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday about massive projected cost growth in the program, said they believed the restructuring had put the program back on track for success, but stressed that they were monitoring the program carefully.
Senator Joseph Lieberman, who heads the committee's airland subcommittee, said he was troubled by news that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was facing projected cost increases of more than 50 percent and worried that delays on the program could widen projected shortfalls for both service's fighter forces.
'The JSF is the cornerstone of tactical aviation modernization for each of our services. Excessive cost growth in this program is bound to hurt American air power in the years ahead,' Lieberman said.
Vice Admiral David Architzel, principal military deputy for acquisition for the Navy, told senators the military services had made an 'unequivocal' commitment to the F-35 program and considered it essential for replacing aging fighters.
In prepared testimony for the hearing, Navy officials said they saw a looming tactical fighter aircraft shortfall as 'manageable' and predicted the peak shortfall could be managed to about 100 aircraft in 2018 -- far below the 177 aircraft forecast as part of the fiscal 2011 budget process -- by doing service life extensions to existing planes.
The U.S. government's fiscal 2011 begins Oct. 1.
Lieberman said the Navy fighter shortfall could be closer to 267 aircraft, but Navy officials felt they could cut the gap to around 150 planes by reducing squadron size, conducting service life extensions on some aircraft and cutting their time in maintenance depots.
'Frankly, I'm not satisfied that the steps taken are sufficient,' Lieberman told the hearing.
He said the Air Force was also facing similar challenges.
But Navy officials said they did not foresee additional purchases of Boeing Co F/A-18E/F Super Hornets beyond the 515 already planned.
Marine Corps Lieutenant General George Trautman said there was no plan to buy more of the Boeing planes, despite a delay in the F-35 program, and said the intention had always been to begin shutting down the F/A-18 line in fiscal 2013.
In the prepared testimony, the officials said the final shutdown was due to occur in fiscal 2015.
Trautman told reporters after the hearing that those remarks referred solely to U.S. Navy and Marine Corps purchases of the Boeing fighter, and did not take into account any foreign arms sales the company might make.
Boeing spokesman Philip Carder said Boeing had delivered more than 420 Super Hornets to the Navy on time or ahead of schedule, and all on budget. He said current plans called for production for the Navy to continue through 2015.
'Additional domestic or international orders would extend production and maintain the industrial base, which is a critical national asset, well beyond 2015,' Carder said.
The Navy officials said they continued to explore the possibility of a multiyear procurement agreement with Defense Secretary Robert Gates to buy 124 F/A-18E/F and EA-18G planes from fiscal 2010 through fiscal 2013.
But one Senate aide said Pentagon cost estimators disagreed with Boeing that the pricing being offered would be sufficient to warrant such a multiyear deal.
Air Force and Navy officials also reiterated their opposition to continued funding for a second engine for the F-35 that is being developed by General Electric Co and Britain's Rolls-Royce.
Architzel and Lieutenant General Mark Shackelford, the top uniformed officer in charge of acquisition for the Air Force, said that spending an additional $2.9 billion on the alternate engine program would divert resources from other key programs.
The Navy testimony said said the Pentagon's Joint Assessment Team that reviewed cost growth on the F-35's primary engine, built by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp, had concluded that Pratt's plan to cut costs on the F135 engine were achievable.
They said Pratt's current proposal for a fourth lot of F135 engines showed that the engine maker had begun to reduce costs in line with the Pentagon assessment.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Tim Dobbyn) Keywords: USA FIGHTERS/ (Andrea Shalal-Esa in Washington; +1 202 898 8400, washington.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
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