CBO report examines possible JSF cuts - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

CBO report examines possible JSF cuts

Should the Navy cut back its commitment to the F-35 Lightning II and spend its money on new F/A-18 Super Hornets? That’s a question addressed head on in a new report from the Congressional Budget Office.

Navy officials have been dodging that question for months, saying only they are “committed” to the Joint Strike Fighter program.

The proposal floated by the CBO Friday includes cutting the Navy and Marine Corps F-35 commitment from 680 planes to 587, or 93 planes. That money could be used to expand the Navy’s less-expensive Super Hornet program of record from today’s 515 to 641, the CBO suggested.

The CBO report laid out several options for closing the Navy’s “fighter gap,” a term for the projected shortfall in carrier-based jets between older Hornets and the JSFs’ arrival. The option of reducing the F-35 commitment was one of four in the report, which drew no firm conclusions about which one was best or most cost effective.

The CBO report is designed to inform lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the details and options for naval aviation. It is not a Navy policy document.

Rear Adm. Michael Manazir, the head of naval aviation programs at the Pentagon, told reporters on May 24 that the Navy is fully committed to the F-35 program. He declined to discuss possible plans to expand the Super Hornet’s program of record.

Dropping the Navy’s F-35C carrier variant is an increasingly popular option on Capitol Hill. Those sentiments have intensified since the Navy acknowledged that the F-35C will not be ready for operations until early 2016 rather than the previous target date of late 2014.

“Folks may force them to buy Super Hornets and take away from the JSF,” one Hill staffer recently told Navy Times. “I think our frustration is that, ‘OK, you guys keep hanging your hat on JSF and JSF keeps moving to the right.”

Many military experts fear that a reduction in the Navy’s planned purchase of F-35s from Lockheed Martin will drive up the per-plane cost of the aircraft and threaten its future viability for the Air Force, Marine Corps and international partners.

Read the report