Two lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle are working together to hold the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin accountable over the development of the F-35 fighter jet.
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There probably are not too many issues on which Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Seth Moulton (D-MA) agree. One is a MAGA firebrand, and the other a Democrat from one of the country’s most liberal states. Therefore, when the two of them team up (as they have done before on the medical marijuana practices of the Department of Veterans Affairs), it’s worth taking a closer look.
This time around, the two lawmakers are working together to take on the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin over the development of the F-35 fighter jet.
On Tuesday, they introduced a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the defense contractor has not held up its end of bargain regarding the construction of these planes, and that the Department of Defense (DOD) has been too lax when it comes to holding the company accountable.
The lawmakers are making the case that the F-35 program is a mess that has been plagued by delays, cost overruns, and performance problems.
Specifically, the resolution states that the program has cost $209 billion more than previously estimated, is a decade behind schedule, that the unit costs per jet are 50 percent above projections, and that the planes are not meeting their performance goals.
And still, the Pentagon “has failed to adequately hold itself and Lockheed Martin accountable for the numerous failures within the F-35 aircraft program,” the resolution states.
Last month, Gaetz lamented that the company received a “full-system performance” contract to fix its own mess.
“The federal government should not give ‘full-system performance’ contracts to companies responsible for their own failures,” he stated on Tuesday. “It’s unacceptable to leave the American taxpayer on the hook for a broken system and allow appropriators in Congress to divest funds from service members’ child care to invest in broken F-35s. We must stop rewarding failure and prioritize our military families.”
The resolution also states that Lockheed Martin and its subcontractors, as a result of their inability to meet cost and performance goals “degraded our military’s capabilities and raised the risks for our warfighters.”
For example, the measure points out that, on average, only about half of all F-35s are mission capable, and fewer than 30 percent are full mission capable.
“For two decades, across multiple administrations and Congresses, Lockheed Martin has failed to deliver on the F-35,” said Moulton. “Every step in the program’s journey has been late, wildly over budget, and has produced a plane that does not perform as required. It’s time to hold Lockheed Martin publicly accountable for failing the American taxpayer.”
