Adjustments put F-35 on track, program director says

The Defense Department's joint strike fighter program is on track to field the F-35 Lightning II in fiscal 2016, the program's director said here Feb. 15.

In remarks to the National Aeronautics Association, Navy Vice Adm. David Venlet said that although changes made to the program in January extended flight testing and slowed development by about a year at an additional cost of $4.6 billion, the program has made progress over the past year.

"We're not spending that amount of money in one year, but it's the added content across the years to (2016) that consume the $4.6 billion," Admiral Venlet said. "We have no doubts that achieving fairly high rates of production is obtainable, but it's going to take some discipline on the way."

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