{"id":39683,"date":"2018-09-14T04:03:07","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T04:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/09\/14\/f-35-inventory-soars-in-new-pentagon-spending-bill\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:05:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:05:34","slug":"f-35-inventory-soars-in-new-pentagon-spending-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2018\/09\/14\/f-35-inventory-soars-in-new-pentagon-spending-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"F-35 inventory soars in new Pentagon spending bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Beyond the 77 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters<\/a> authorized by the 2019 defense policy bill, congressional appropriators are adding another 16 for a total of 93.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congressional conferees on Thursday finalized<\/a> a $674.4 billion defense spending bill for next year packaged with funding for the departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, or Labor-HHS \u2014 and a continuing resolution through Dec. 7 for some other parts of the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As usual, appropriators used their annual defense spending bill to offer tweaks to the existing shopping list for military hardware from the previous version, which President Donald Trump signed<\/a> into law last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new compromise spending bill, which trumps the authorization bill, buys three littoral combat ships<\/a> instead of two and 13 Bell-Boeing V-22 Ospreys<\/a> instead of seven \u2014 among other differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy and Marine Corps continue to invest in vertical takeoff aircraft and announced a $4.2 billion contract for dozens of new V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft just weeks ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Navy has been trying to cap its purchases of the LCS amid the program\u2019s troubles<\/a>. In June, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told appropriators three ships were two too many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese two additional ships are not needed,\u201d Mulvaney said in a memo. \u201cOne LCS in FY 2019, when combined with the three funded in FY 2018, will keep both shipyards supplied with enough work to remain viable for the Frigate competition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t