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Today, Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, made the following remarks on the hearing titled “Update on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program and the Fiscal Year 2017 Budget Request.” For testimony and to watch the hearing click here.

"The subcommittee meets today to receive testimony on the current status of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.

We welcome our distinguished panel of witnesses:
• Dr. Michael Gilmore, Director of Operational Test and Evaluation;

• Mr. Michael J. Sullivan, Director of Acquisition and Sourcing, Government Accountability Office;

• The Honorable Sean Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition; and,

• Lieutenant General Christopher C. Bogdan
F-35 Program Executive Officer

I thank you all for your service and look forward to your testimony today.

The F-35 is a complex program. The program is essentially three major tactical aircraft programs being managed as one program.

It’s well known that during its development the F-35 program has experienced significant cost, schedule, and performance problems, and while improvements have been made, more work needs to be done.

Both the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation and the GAO have highlighted concerns about the F-35 program for fiscal year 2017 and beyond, especially with respect to finishing the development program in October 2017 as planned due to software and testing delays.

This hearing today will provide the opportunity to address some of these concerns.

From a committee oversight standpoint we plan to focus on three major efforts for fiscal year 2017: the challenges facing incremental software development and testing, the development of the autonomic logistics information system or ALIS, and the ability of the escape system, or ejection seat, to accommodate all pilot weights.

We look forward to receiving updates on all three of these critical oversight issues from our witnesses today.

Additionally we expect to receive an update on the corrective actions being taken to address the issues and concerns that were raised by pilots and maintainers during the Subcommittee’s congressional delegation visit to Eglin Air Force Base last year.

I also have concerns over the impacts of the budget request for the F-35 program in fiscal year 2017.

The F-35 budget request proposes a reduction of five F-35As, and also reduces procurement by 32 F-35s across the Future Year’s Defense Program.

According to the Joint Program Office these reductions in planned procurement could result in unit cost increases for the overall program.

Besides the cost increases to the program I have concerns over what message this is sending our international partners in terms of support for the program.

Despite the issues identified for the F-35 program, there is no doubt we need to field a fifth generation strike fighter in order to maintain air dominance.

In the event of a conflict our land forces all assume we will have air dominance and fifth generation strike fighters will provide this capability."