Pentagon’s Renewed Vow to Build 2,443 F-35s Depends on Budgets
- Work says goal is to buy them at ‘highest rate affordable’
- Deputy secretary says he doesn’t see big cost reductions
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The Pentagon still plans a fleet of 2,443 F-35 jets, but the costliest U.S. weapons program may face cuts under the next president if defense dollars continue to be reduced, according to the Defense Department’s No.2 official.
The Pentagon’s focus “for the foreseeable future is to acquire F-35s at the highest rate affordable” even though the goal for a fleet of 2,443 of the fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp. “was established prior to the last two decades’ force reductions” and before budget caps reduced planned levels of spending through 2021, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work wrote congressional defense leaders May 25.