Opening Statements

Today, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, made the following remarks, as prepared for delivery, ahead of a joint hearing with the Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces titled, "F-35 Program Update: Sustainment, Production, and Affordability Challenges."

"Thank you Chairman Garamendi, I truly appreciate the opportunity to conduct this joint hearing with our colleagues on the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee. The F-35 program is an example of a program that seems like it was designed to be 'too big to fail.'

"From the program's inception, the Pentagon struggled to resolve conflicts between the Services regarding the Joint Strike Fighter's requirements, failed to protect the government's ownership of intellectual property that was funded by taxpayer dollars, and failed to manage cost growth.

"Lockheed Martin has delivered over 458 aircraft to our military and to international partners participating in the program. We now enter the period where sustainment and readiness of the F-35 fleet are critical to our national security.

"One of the biggest concerns I have is whether the government has full access to the intellectual property required to sustain the F-35. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses in both panels about how we are addressing that issue. We are at risk of allowing one company to be in a monopolistic position to the government, which would enable it to charge a premium for sustainment contracts.

"My next concern is that we must build capacity within the depots and maintenance systems of our armed forces. Failing to do so will guarantee future sustainment challenges. When you talk with pilots and maintainers in the field, they have serious concerns about the Autonomic Logistics Information System, known as ALIS, that supports mission planning, supply chain management, and maintenance. Operators are spending countless hours inputting data that is supposed to be automated. From my perspective it appears the software architecture is dated, and I look forward to discussing the way ahead.

"Within the data management part of the program, I am also deeply concerned about simulator support for the force. My understanding is that there are significant issues in replacing the servers that support these systems, which significantly reduces the ability of our pilots to train.

"Finally, supply chain management for F-35 is still a work in progress and has a long way to go. The prime contractor is responsible for managing replacement parts packages, and government personnel on site have limited to no visibility into the actual parts on hand. We are receiving consistent feedback from the field that these packages are not configured for the correct version of the aircraft they were provided to support. Because the contractor is managing the supply chain instead of the military, the program is incurring unnecessary costs to move parts between countries and support all partner nations.

"I thank our witnesses for their testimony today. You are working diligently to address the shortcomings I mentioned. The foundation of these problems was laid decades ago in some cases, but we have to pick up the pace on sustainment as we get closer to full rate production. At $406 billion for acquisition and more than $1 trillion estimated for sustainment, we cannot afford further mismanagement of this program.

"I yield back."
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