Pentagon: Cutting F-35 Would Be Complicated, Costly

With a Senate showdown over the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter expected when the chamber debates the defense authorization bill this fall, Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn has told key lawmakers that canceling the stealthy aircraft would be a costly and complicated move.

In a July 25 letter to Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and ranking member John McCain, R-Ariz., Lynn said that the Defense Department would have to pay termination costs to the plane’s maker, Lockheed Martin, as well Pratt & Whitney, which builds the engine for the multiservice fighter, if Congress killed the program.

Both contracts contain clauses governing termination, but the total costs to the government incurred by canceling the program--which is the largest on the Pentagon’s books--would require a “detailed analysis” of the aircraft, the engine and sustainment contracts, Lynn wrote.

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