Aircraft

Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan has directed Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord to begin planning for alternative supply options for Turkish-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter parts in the event Turkey remains suspended from the program or is expelled for its purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system, according to a defense official.

The unit cost of the F-35A could go as low as $75 million in Lot 14 of low-rate initial production if the program can improve supply chain and production line performance, the head of the program recently told Inside Defense.

If Turkey were removed from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter supply chain, the program office expects there would be a slowdown of parts to the three production lines within three months time, resulting in between 50 and 75 aircraft being delivered late over a two-year period.

Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) yesterday bemoaned the lack of a disaster relief supplemental bill and said one must be passed within the next eight days before Congress adjourns for its Easter recess.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said today the service has halted 61 building renovation and maintenance programs this year to pay for storm damage repairs at Tyndall Air Force Base. Wilson's comments came one day after a supplemental spending bill was introduced in Congress that will provide $400 million toward those repairs.

A Defense Department official who briefed reporters at the Pentagon today said acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan did not play a direct role in the decision to buy Boeing's F-15EX, citing an ethics agreement that barred Shanahan from doing so.

The Air Force’s plan to buy 80 F-15EX aircraft over the next five years assumes an airframe unit cost of $80.3 million per jet and non-recurring costs of $407 million over that same time period.

The Air Force’s fiscal year 2020 budget request for the Next-Generation Air Dominance program is $3.8 billion less between FY-20 and FY-23 than what the service forecast last year, due to a "decision to defer development of specific classified technologies and refocus resources."

The Navy plans to request a $205.6 billion topline, including what is projected to be the largest requested shipbuilding budget in 20 years, according to fiscal year 2020 budget briefing slides obtained by Inside Defense.