Air Force secretary nominee threads needle on future of F-35 program

President Biden’s nominee to lead the Air Force on Tuesday walked a fine line on the future of the F-35 fighter jet program, expressing concern about sustainment costs and future upgrades but also calling the jet the “best tactical aircraft of its type in the world.”

“The F-35 is the best tactical aircraft of its type in the world and will be so for quite some time,” Frank Kendall, the Air Force secretary nominee, said at his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing. “It’s a complex, expensive weapon, unfortunately, but it is a dominant weapon when it goes up against earlier-generation aircraft.”

Kendall previously served in the Pentagon as its top weapons buyer during the Obama administration.

In that job, Kendall had some harsh words for the F-35 program, saying in 2012 that the decision to put it into production before flight tests was “acquisition malpractice.” However, later on in his tenure in 2016, Kendall said there had been “continuing progress in all aspects” of the program.

Known as the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons system ever, the F-35 program is expected to cost $1.7 trillion over its lifetime, and flying one right now costs $36,000 per hour.

The program has been plagued by a host of cost overruns and technological issues, and as of January, just 69 percent of the completed jets can meet at least one assigned mission, far below the military’s 80 percent goal.

Earlier this year, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said he wants to “stop throwing money down that particular rathole,” raising the prospect of political fights over whether to make cuts to the program in this year’s defense budget.

Since Smith’s comments, Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) has been pushing those who appear before his panel to voice support for the program.

“It’s had problems, but there is no other aircraft that offers that capability and capacity of the F-35. Now, at least, that’s what we hear from the people who fly them,” Inhofe said Tuesday.

Kendall told Inhofe he believes the Air Force needs an “affordable mix” of aircraft to meet the National Defense Strategy but also suggested he believes buying more F-35s will help drive down sustainment costs.

“I have a long history with the F-35. It has struggled, certainly, and since I left government four years ago, I understand the sustainment costs are a concern,” he said. 

“Also, there is concern with the upgrade to the most recent version, and it’s having trouble there, which I’ve heard about through press accounts only and I’ll have to take a look at if I’m confirmed,” he added. “The key to keeping the cost down in an air fleet is getting the numbers up. There’s a very strong correlation between the size of the fleet and the cost to sustain that fleet.”

Meanwhile, Kendall pledged to senators he would work to end Turkey’s manufacturing of parts of the F-35.

The Pentagon formally kicked Turkey out of the F-35 program in 2019 over Ankara’s purchase of a Russian air defense system. But the department still plans to continue buying some parts for the jet from Turkey through 2022 in order to avoid costs from ending those contracts early.

“Under the current situation with Turkey, I think we should not be building F-35 parts in Turkey,” Kendall said, also answering in the affirmative when pressed by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) whether he would work to end that practice “as soon as possible.”