Amos Pledges Action On F-35B

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos today pledged to use his position and prestige to independently monitor the development of the troubled F-35B, which Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week put on a two-year probation in a bid to ensure the service acquires the Joint Strike Fighter short-takeoff-and-landing variant.

In a statement issued today, Amos -- the first pilot to lead the Marines -- said:

I personally met with top leadership within the F35 program, to include our industry partner, and communicated that I intend to personally track the progress of our airplane over the next two years. I will track every pound of weight growth, required engineering fixes, and every test point completed.

This strikes a different chord than that of his predecessor, Gen. James Conway, who 13 months ago asserted that the word of Robert Stevens, chief executive officer of JSF prime contractor Lockheed Martin, was good enough for him.

On Dec. 15, 2009, Conway was asked during a Pentagon press conference whether -- in light an independent assessment panel's assertion that more time and money were required to develop the F-35B -- he was confident the Marine Corps would be able to fulfill its plan to field its first JSF unit in 2012.

I just saw Bob Stevens last week, you know, and we stood closer than you and I are, and I asked him that question, okay. So -- and he's not a BS kind of guy. You know, he tells me he's got his A team on it, he still thinks he can make 2012, and all, you know, focuses are in that direction. So I got to take the man at his word.

Days after Conway's statement, the Pentagon committed to the first installment of what now amounts to $7.4 billion in remedial funding to be pumped into the program over the next five years, a sum paid for by slashing 246 aircraft from the Defense Department's JSF production plans through FY-16.

Here's the full exchange from the late 2009 press briefing.

Q    Let me ask about the Joint Strike Fighter, too. There's a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on this tomorrow. What's your level of concern these days, contrasted with earlier this year when you were fairly enthusiastic about the STOVL'S purported performance? You know, it hasn't flown yet, the full envelope, but we're still waiting, sir. What's your level of concern?

GEN. CONWAY:  Yeah. We have the first test aircraft at Pax [Patuxent] River. The second one, I think, is going to be there before the end of the year.

My focus . . . is on the promise that the contractor has made to us that we will have IOC [initial operational capability] of our first squadron -- and by the way, I think you know we're the first service to get an operational squadron -- in 2012. That is an important period to us because the British and the Italians, who are buying the same version that we are, are keenly interested in that. We have accepted risk now for a number of years not buying fourth-generation airplanes, such as the Navy has done, to await the arrival of this aircraft. We've got a small bathtub out there, a vulnerability with regard to attack and fighter aircraft.

So all of our planning is 2012 backwards. And when we ask that question, we get the same answer: We're going to make 2012 for you; it may be December of calendar year 2012, but we're going to make 2012 for you.

And what the contractors tell us, and in fact it's validated by the program manager, is that the ground test birds that we have used are going to be tremendously more impactful than they have been in the past, and that a lot of things that we're going -- that we could see when we start flying the experimental aircraft in the vertical takeoff mode will be less problematic for us.

I still fully expect to get an invitation in the spring of next year to go watch the first vertical flight at Pax River.

And if that happens, again, the contractors and the program manager tell me that we will be generally on the schedule that they think we need to follow.

Q     What does your BS meter tell you, though? I mean, you've heard this from the companies and the program manager before, that the thing is on schedule, it's going to do this, it's going to do that. I mean, are you getting more skeptical or are you --

GEN. CONWAY:  Well, I'm a -- I'm an unapologetic optimist, okay, I got to tell you that at the outset, I guess.  But, you know, I -- we are very concerned about it. We register that concern, okay. I just saw Bob Stevens last week, you know, and we stood closer than you and I are, and I asked him that question, okay.  So -- and he's not a BS kind of guy.  You know, he tells me he's got his A team on it, he still thinks he can make 2012, and all, you know, focuses are in that direction. So I got to take the man at his word. And so I think everybody understands how important it is and that we're not going to -- we're not going to let up.

Q     What are concerned about?  I don't -- this will be my last question.  What are you concerned about at this point, though?  That they may not make the '012 date, or that the program is just slipping too much?

GEN. CONWAY:  Our focus is 2012, okay.  And I think they're related. So long as that -- as that doesn't slip, then I -- I'm not going to be critical of the other things that they have in some of the areas of the program, okay. Cost rise and all that, that's someone else's concern, at least at this point, although we're watching it in a per-unit kind of consideration. But our focus is that we want to get those planes in and operational so we can start doing the same thing with the F-35 that we -- that we have done with Osprey.