Lockheed Martin agreed to the deferral of a $614 million award fee on the F-35 program, announced Monday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates as part of the Fiscal 2011 budget rollout. Dan Crowley, F-35 program manager for Lockheed Martin, said Tuesday it’s fair for the government to insist on performance and added that DOD is “going toward incentive-based fees” on all contracts. If the company can keep F-35 costs down and hit its marks in flight test and production, it could get the money, Crowley said. He also noted that since the government will take a conservative approach in estimating F-35 costs, if actual costs come in lower, the services could “buy to budget” and actually buy more airplanes with the same money. One thing is for sure, though: No money is going to be added to accommodate higher costs, Crowley said.
Fixing the Air Force’s chronic combat pilot shortage will require more aircraft in the fleet, more flying hours to squadron operations, and retaining more pilots within Reserve components, according to a new paper from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.