New F-35 Sustainability Review Ordered by HASC Readiness Panel
June 8, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak
The U.S. comptroller general, who oversees the Government Accountability Office, would assess sustainability challenges of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and report back to Congress by March 2023 under a House Armed Services subcommittee markup of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.
The readiness subcommittee tasked the comptroller general, Gene L. Dodaro, with what amounts to a lessons-learned evaluation of how well F-35s have fared when deployed—as well as how the left-behind aircraft in their units do during those deployments—to assess the adequacy of spare parts and other elements of the F-35 support enterprise.
The subcommittee has been vocal about its displeasure with F-35 sustainment costs and availability rates. Panel chair John Garamendi (D-Calif.) has pledged to fight hard to block his colleagues from adding more F-35s than the Pentagon asks for, noting that adding aircraft before the support enterprise is ready for them only worsens the readiness problem. Congress has added a dozen aircraft to the Air Force’s F-35 request for several years running.
https://www.airforcemag.com/new-f-35-sustainability-review-ordered-by-hasc-readiness-panel/
