WASHINGTON \u2014 House legislation released Wednesday would require the Pentagon to assess the lone engine program for the F-35 fighter program, but congressional aides contend it is not a gambit to revive a controversial second-engine initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The House Armed Services Subcommittee for <\/span>Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee proposal <\/span> includes a requirement for an independent review of the F135 engine, the Pratt & Whitney design that powers the F-35 joint strike fighter.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n The subpanel, however, decided to leave the fate of the Air Force’s A-10 attack plane fleet to the full committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Complete coverage of the 2016 budget <\/b><\/a><\/span> That review, which would be conducted by a federally funded research and development center and would be completed by March 16, 2016, would include an assessment on “reliability, growth and cost reduction efforts” with the engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It would also review last June’s fire, which destroyed an F-35A model as it was beginning a test flight and led to a temporary grounding of the F-35 fleet. The F-35 joint program office has expressed confidence that it and its industry partners have isolated the cause of that incident and are on the road to repairing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following that June fire, there was an outburst of discussion about whether a competitor engine program to the F135 should be restarted; the language released today will undoubtedly excite critics of the F-35 program and potential competitors to Pratt who still hope for that to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n However, a congressional aide threw water on the idea that this was a back door for the introduction of a new competitor engine. Instead, the aide said, this is just a way to ensure the program is on track and Pratt is doing all it can to keep it moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, the language requests a look at the F-35’s Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), which controls multiple aspects of the plane’s mission and upkeep systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Citing “numerous complaints and concerns by F-35 maintenance and operational personnel regarding the limitations, poor performance, poor design, and overall unsuitability of the ALIS software in its current form,” the look at ALIS would be run by the comptroller general of the United States with a completion date of April 1, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The committee is concerned that continued problems with the performance of the ALIS element of the F-35 program may put the program at significant risk of cost increases and performance shortfalls,” the committee’s language reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the Army, the bill would \u2014 pending further study \u2014 limit funding for programs such as the Distributed Common Ground System, Joint Battle Command-Platform and AN\/TPQ-53 radar systems, and re-examine or reshuffle the Army’s plans for UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The subcommittee’s statement says the bill will address the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Navy shortfalls in tactical strike fighter aircraft and addresses <\/span>a Navy unfunded requirement for additional F\/A-18F Super Hornets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 National Guard aviation programs, adding aircraft and upgrades to UH-60 Black Hawks, and requiring additional accountability on the prioritization and distribution strategy employed by the National Guard Bureau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Army unfunded requirements for Hercules improved recovery vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Army and Marine Corps’ unfunded requirements for additional Javelin missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Army critical unfunded requirements for survivability enhancements for H-64 Apache attack helicopters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Upgrading the lethality of current Stryker combat vehicles, to compensate for the “short-sighted removal of heavy equipment from Europe.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the Air Force, the summary released Wednesday morning includes language to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Limit by half <\/span>the obligation or expenditure of funds for research, development, test and evaluation of the F-15 infrared search and track capability to not more than 50 percent until a period of <\/span>30 days has elapsed after following the date on which <\/span>the secretary of defense submits a report to the congressional defense committees. The report would compare requirements between the Navy and the Air Force, and would need to justify any differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Direct the secretary of the Air Force to brief the committee by Feb. 29, 2016, on operational mission concepts for the Next Generation Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System program, funded at $44.3 million in the budget. The committee encouraged the Air Force to consider how the platform can grow and adapt to future threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the Army, the summary released Wednesday morning includes language to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Limit the availability of funds for the beleaguered intelligence program, the Distributed Common Ground System, to 75 percent of the funds authorized until the secretary of the Army reviews it and submits the findings to congressional defense and intelligence committees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Direct the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics to brief the committee on its plans for mine resistant ambush protected vehicles (MRAPs) across the military’s inventory; the status of a mobile command post requirement; how excess MRAPs should be disposed of; a discussion of whether current threats require a review of the requirement for MRAPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Require the Army to submit a report to the congressional defense committees by March 1, 2016, containing detailed options for the potential acceleration of the replacement of all UH-60A helicopters of the Army National Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Require the chief of the National Guard Bureau to issue guidance within 180 days after the law passes that prioritizes UH-60 helicopter upgrades within the Army National Guard to units with the highest flight-hour aircraft and highest utilization rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Direct the secretary of the Army to brief the House Armed Services Committee by Jan. 31, 2016, on its active protection system for ground vehicles, and encourages it to<\/span> establishment of a formal program for the development effort, funded at $55.4 million in the budget proposal, and its rapid integration to integrate it <\/span>onto vehicles. quickly. <\/span>The technology is meant to defend against from <\/span>anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Require the Army to submit a report by March 1, 2016, to the congressional defense committees that addresses the effectiveness, suitability and survivability shortfalls of the Joint Battle Command\u2013Platform equipment identified by the director of operational test and evaluation in the director’s fiscal year <\/span>2014 annual report to Congress. It would also limit funds by 25 percent 30 days after the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Limit funding <\/span>to by <\/span>25 percent of<\/span> the funds for AN\/TPQ-53 radar systems until 30 days after the Army submits to the congressional defense committees a review of the current delegation of acquisition authority to the program executive officer for missiles and space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Require the committee be briefed by Aug. 31, 2016, on its degraded visual environment mitigation system for rotorcraft programs, funded at $20 million in the budget request. The committee is concerned progress has been too slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Require the committee be briefed by July 30 on plans to enhance and simplify the Army’s networks, including including <\/span>efforts already underway to improve waveform configuration, loading and unit-task reorganization. The plan to achieve the Army’s goals, the summary says, is<\/span> “remains unclear.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Require the committee be briefed by March 1, 2016, on a funding profile and acquisition strategy for the rapid acquisition of an ultra-light combat tactical vehicle. The Army is looking to address a request from the 82nd Airborne Division and endorsed by 18th Airborne Corps and the US Army Forces Command, and has already purchased 33 commercial vehicles for proof-of-principle tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Email: jgould@defensenews.com<\/a> | amehta@defensenews.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n Twitter: @reporterjoe<\/a> | @AaronMehta<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" House legislation released Wednesday would require the Pentagon to assess the lone engine program for the F-35 fighter program, but congressional aides contend it is not a gambit to revive a controversial second-engine initiative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":116360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,33,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3378,3446],"class_list":["post-60823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-home","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"WIFXY5ZQS5F7POIBOVZJ7NQKRA","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2015\/04\/22\/house-bill-proposes-f-35-engine-study\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n