Carter To Brief F-35 Partners on Program Changes
By JOHN T. BENNETT
Published: 2 Mar 2010 Air Force Times
U.S. defense acquisition chief Ashton Carter will huddle March 4 with other military procurement chiefs about Pentagon plans to restructure the multination F-35 fighter program, a Pentagon official says.
The high-level session will take place at prime contractor Lockheed Martin’s F-35 production facility in Fort Worth, Texas, the official said.
During the “CEOs conference,” as two sources called it, Carter will brief “his counterparts” from the eight nations that are Washington’s official partners on the fifth-generation fighter effort, according to the Pentagon official.
Lockheed Martin spokesman Christian Geisel said the international meeting has been on the books since last April. Such sessions are held annually, he said.
Carter is set to explain to the other defense procurement chiefs in detail how the Pentagon has restructured the F-35 program, the official said. Also expected to be a part of the agenda is how DoD intends to revamp the program’s annual budget, as well as details about Washington’s adjusted yearly buy rate.
The United Kingdom is considered a “level one” partner on the effort, while Italy and the Netherlands are “level two partners,” according to a Lockheed Martin fact sheet.
Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Turkey are listed on the fact sheet as “level three” partners,” and Israel and Singapore are “foreign military sales participants.”
Senior Pentagon brass late last year began a comprehensive relook at the program after an internal DoD study group estimated additional F-35 cost growth and schedule slips were coming.
That soup-to-nuts review, led by Carter, spanned several months and culminated with changes to the program’s budget, buy rate and overall schedule.
The F-35 is slated to constitute the bulk of the U.S. military’s future fighter arsenal. The U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines are each set to buy various models of the Lockheed-made warplane.
Attendees will “include Department of Defense, and U.S. industrial leaders and the senior leadership of international partner-country governments, militaries, and industries to receive the latest update of F-35 program status and to address any JSF program-related issues,” Geisel said. “The attendee list, which will include officials from the U.S. services, “has been consistent from year to year,” he added.
“Lockheed Martin and the JSF Program Office will present several joint program-update briefings on a variety of topics,” Geisel said.
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