Wittman says patience wearing thin on F-35 sustainment plan
By Stephen Losey
Oct 3, 10:10 AM
WASHINGTON — A leading House lawmaker wants to see some hard details — and soon — from the F-35 Joint Program Office about how it plans to fix the jet fighter’s long-lagging availability rates.
And Rep. Rob Wittman’s patience with the JPO on the fighter’s low readiness is starting to wear thin, he said in an interview.
Speaking to Defense News in his Capitol Hill office on Sept. 29, Wittman, the Virginia Republican who chairs the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces, said he thinks the JPO’s “war on readiness” plan is “the right idea.”
Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, the F-35 program executive officer, told Wittman’s subcommittee in a March hearing that the plan would “mature sustainment processes and maximize F-35 availability for decades to come.”
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/10/03/wittman-says-patience-wearing-thin-on-f-35-sustainment-plan/
