F-35 program chief lashes out at jet producers

F-35 program chief lashes out at jet producers:
US Lieutenant-General Christopher Bogdan on Wednesday criticizedLockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney for overcharging the USgovernment and failing to establish a good relationship with thePentagon, Reuters reports.
“I want them both to start behaving like they want to bearound for 40 years,” Bogdan told reporters during a visit toAustralia. “I want them to take on some of the risk of thisprogram, I want them to invest in cost reductions, I want them todo the things that will build a better relationship. I’m notgetting all that love yet.”
The Pentagon has planned to procure a fleet of 2,443 F-35fighter jets over the next 40 years to replace some of its olderaircrafts. But the estimated cost to develop and buy this fleet isaround $382 billion, while operating it will bring the cost to $1trillion during the next four decades.
“Its an unaffordable program at the numbers that we’reusing,” Lieutenant General Terry Robling told Reuters earlierthis month. Bogdan, who heads the program for the F-35 warplanes,has long sought convince Australian lawmakers to buy 100 of thejets, since Australia is a close American ally.
But convincing American allies to purchase the expensivewarplanes is proving difficult, since an F-35 was grounded for thesecond time in two months last week after an inspector discovered acrack on a turbine blade. The military does not know when the planewill be ready to fly again. Additionally, the manufacturersinitially claimed the planes would cost $67 million each – but nowclaim that the cost is $90 million each.
Angered by the manufacturers’ false claims, Bogdan publiclycondemned their actions and asked them to work towards developing abetter relationship with the US government.
“What I see Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney doingtoday is behaving as if they are getting ready to sell me the verylast F-35 and the very last engine and are trying to squeezeevery  nickel out of that last F-35 and that last engine,”Bogdan said, who was speaking to reporters at the AustralianInternational Airshow.
Lockheed Martin is the primary defense contractor for the F-35program, while Pratt & Whitney is the sole supplier of F-35engines, making it impossible for the government to turn elsewherefor the parts.
Knowing that the US does not have alternative suppliers may haveprompted the companies to charge such high prices for theirequipment. When Bogdan took over as head of the F-35 program lastSeptember, he called the relationship between Lockheed Martin andthe US military “the worst I’ve ever seen.”
On Wednesday, Bogdan told reporters that the relationship hasimproved “a little bit”, but not nearly at the rate he wants to seethe relationship develop.
And without Australia’s help in purchasing some of the F-35sthat the US military needs, the Pentagon will struggle to buythousands of the 2,443 F-35s alone.
As the US military budget is slated to be cut by nearly $500billion in the next ten years, the  F-35 program will becostlier than ever.
Other countries currently paying for the development of the F-35are Birtain, Candada, Italy, Turkey, Denmark, the Netherlands andNorway. If Australia opts out, the cost for the US and its allieswill only rise at a time when the Pentagon could be facing massivebudget cuts that would force the military to reconsider where itspends its money.