The Air Force’s F-35 program continues to fall short of the Pentagon’s combat readiness goals, a senior DOD official told Congress Wednesday.
“No F-35 variant meets the specified reliability or maintainability metrics,” Robert Behler, director of the DOD Operational Test and Evaluation Office, told a House Armed Services subcommittee, according to Military.com. “The aircraft are breaking more often and taking longer to fix.”
F-35 performance is increasing but will not meet the Pentagon’s 80% combat-readiness goal this year, Behler and other DOD leaders said.
A Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday concluded that “DOD must continue to grapple with affordability as it takes actions to increase the readiness of the F-35 fleet and improve its sustainment efforts.”
Air Force photo by Airman Brooke Moeder