The House Joint Strike Fighter Caucus sent a bipartisan letter Monday signed by 99 members to push for an increase in F-35A purchases, following the Air Force’s recent budget request that proposed keeping them at a flat rate, DefenseNews reported.
The letter to defense authorizers and appropriators argued the caucus’s proposed F-35 production hike would reduce overall unit costs and ensure air dominance as “adversaries continue to advance surface-to-air missile systems and develop their own stealth fighters,” DefenseNews noted.
“As global threats continue to rise, the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Fiscal Year 2020 budget request, which includes funding for 78 F-35 models (48 F-35As, 10 F-35Bs and 20 F-35Cs) – 15 less than Congress appropriated in Fiscal Year 2019 – leaves the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps with a capability gap that 4th Generation, or legacy, aircraft cannot fulfill,” the letter argues.
“To reach the minimum 50 percent ratio of 5th generation and 4th generation fighters in the timeframe required to meet the threat, the U.S. must acquire F-35s in much larger quantities,” the letter says. “F-35 modernization is crucial for 4th generation aircraft systems, which are increasingly vulnerable and reliant on 5th generation production.”
 
Air Force photo by Sgt. Jensen Stidham