Congresswoman Duckworth Calls for Increased Accountability of Defense Spending at NDAA Mark Up
Statement
Last week, during the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) mark up before the House Armed Services Committee, Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (IL-08) introduced an amendment to withhold funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter until its software testing is successfully completed. There are currently multiple technical problems with the program and Duckworth argued that the Department of Defense should not be spending $6 billion on new F-35s until the issues are resolved.
The video and text of her remarks before the Armed Services Committee are included below:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/4455403
"Thank you Mr. Chairman. Time and time again, my constituents have written, called, and come into my office about the wasteful government spending that is ballooning our deficit and taking valuable resources away from the programs that invest in our future. One example of such wasteful spending has to do with the acquisition practice of concurrency, which is how we are procuring the F-35 Joint Striker Fighter.
"I have serious concerns that concurrency has led to the project cost for the F-35 increasing 68% over initial estimates in 2001. Senior DOD leadership has called the program "acquisition malpractice, to test and build at the same time. And, in a recent GAO report, leadership said that "software risk (still) remains the top development issue."
"Although seemingly integral to our country's national security strategy and keeping our military the strongest and most modernized in the world, many of the plane's vaunted electronic warfare capabilities -- the same capabilities we need to defeat our enemies -- remain untested and unready. Flight testing of the first operationally-capable mission system software for the F-35, known as "Block 2B," has barely begun, with only 5% of flight testing done as of last month. A number of troubling technical issues have emerged recently as well: problems with the highly-sophisticated helmet, the lightening protection system, the fuel dump system, and the arresting hook.
"My amendment does not strike any funding from the F-35 program. Rather, it simply fences the funding until the Secretary of Defense certifies that the testing for mission systems software "Block 2B," helmet avionics, and the lightening protection system/arresting hook/fuel dump systems have all been successfully tested. I want contractors to be held accountable and I want to fix technical problems before we give them another 6 billion dollars of taxpayer money. There's nothing wrong with "flying before we buy" and asking those we give precious resources to show they can deliver the product they promised.
"Again, I am not striking any funding from the F-35 program. I simply want fixes to the problems with the software -- software that is so integral to the success of the F-35 and our national security strategy -- to be fully verified and tested before we field another 29 aircraft. I urge my colleagues to support this good government, smart spending amendment."
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/4455403
Source