The Pentagon plans to seek more than $650 million in fiscal year 2018 to finance bulk purchase of parts for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter production, an initiative congressional auditors say may be premature but which the Defense Department says will produce future savings in tandem with a potential multiyear block-buy package from foreign governments. Acting Pentagon acquisition executive James MacStravic, in an April 11 response to the Government Accountability Office's annual audit of the F-35 program, previewed a key element...
