Lockheed’s fifth generation F-35 fighter programme in deep turbulence

US Air Force secretary Michael Donley said Tuesday that a major cost overrun in the tri-service, nine-nation Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme was very likely, and this would trigger an extensive, mandatory review of alternatives under the Nunn-McCurdy statute.

The F-35 JSF

The Nunn-McCurdy Amendment, or Nunn–McCurdy Provision, is designed to curtail cost growth in American weapons procurement programs. It requires cost growth of more than 15 per cent to be notified to the United States Congress, and calls for the termination of programmes whose total cost grew by more than 25 per cent over the original estimate - unless the secretary of defense submits a detailed explanation certifying that the programme is essential to national security, that no suitable alternative of lesser cost is available, that new estimates of total programme costs are reasonable, and that the management structure is (or has been made) adequate to control costs.

The F-35 programme involves developing variants for the Air Force, the Marine Corps and the Navy, plus nine US allies.

On Tuesday, Donley told reporters that he thought "we are going to have a slip" on the F-35 programme and that the state-of-the art fighters would probably not be ready for induction into the US Air Force until 2015.

This would mark a delay of two years over the scheduled induction date of 2013.

The Pentagon declined to confirm if the variants being developed for the US Marines and the US Navy would also be delayed. These variants were supposed to enter service in 2012 and 2015, respectively.