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F-35 engine debate threatens defense bill

FORT WORTH, Texas —The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program remains on schedule to open the first training squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., in 2011, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said after touring Lockheed Martin’s F-35 plant.

Gates said he is confident the $300 billion program to build 2,456 fifth-generation fighters will escape the budget ax during the Defense Department’s deliberations over future budget priorities.

“The F-35 is at root the core of our combat tactical aircraft in the future,” Gates told reporters Aug. 31. “I would say my view is we cannot afford, as a nation, not to have this airplane.”

Gates toured the plant alongside Robert Stevens, Lockheed Martin’s chairman and chief executive, and spoke to workers building the $100 million fighters on a mile-long production line. The Pentagon calls the F-35 its future workhorse, a mix-and-match platform that can do many things that now require specialized aircraft that cost billions to fine-tune.

Gates also renewed a threat by the Obama administration to veto a $680 billion defense spending bill if it includes money for two separate engines for the F-35, a luxury the Pentagon says it cannot afford.

“The general conclusion is that it would cost several billion dollars in addition,” and cause headaches for production down the road, Gates said.

With tight budgets, Gates said, “We feel strongly there is not a need for the second engine.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.