So where’s the $614 million? - Air Force Community - Air Force Times

So where’s the $614 million?

The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program is behind schedule, over budget and plagued with technical problems.

It’s such a mess even the Pentagon has had enough.

Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the military program manager, extended the flight-test commitment, postponed operational deliveries and announced he is withholding $614 million in payments to prime contractor Lockheed Martin.

The actions, described by Gates as “restructuring,” seem like a move in the right direction, especially the Lockheed smack-down.

A plane maker penalized — at last — for poor performance. Outside the Capital Beltway, withholding $614 million is a concept that the average American can understand.

But have an average Joe ask the government what happened to the money and you’re going to get the runaround. I did.

It would seem that if the contractor doesn’t get the money and the government doesn’t spend it, the federal deficit — the amount by which the total national debt is increasing each year — is reduced by $614 million.

Well, no.

Inside the beltway, withholding $614 million doesn’t really mean withholding $614 million. What it does mean, though, is anybody’s guess.

“We hope to recover some of it,” Lockheed Martin’s JSF public affairs chief, Chris Geisel, said in an interview.

OK, so Lockheed is counting on getting some of the cash back for improved performance.

Gates spokesman Geoffrey Morrell referred an inquiry to his assistant, Col. David Lapan, who confirmed in an e-mail that Lockheed Martin “can recover some of the $614 million, but not all of it.” Lapan cited comments made at a news conference by Pentagon acquisitions boss Ashton Carter, including that Carter made “very clear he would not discuss the specifics behind what part was not recoverable.”

In other words, Gates may have withheld $614 million, or maybe not, but citizens aren’t allowed to know.

Asked by a reporter how much the Pentagon is really withholding, Carter said, “Well, I think that is something that remains between the government and Lockheed Martin for now.”

Carter is dead wrong.

The public deserves to know whether Lockheed is being penalized and, if so, by how much. Taxpayers, millions of whom are also troops, can’t know the truth if the Pentagon doesn’t come clean. Lockheed isn’t going to tell them.

So, Mr. Gates, Mr. Carter: Where is the $ 614 million? Ë

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Robert F. Dorr is an Air Force veteran and author. His latest book is “Hell Hawks,” a history of an American fighter group in World War II. Write him at robert.f.dorr@cox.net.