Although flight testing on the F-35 strike fighter ramped up “significantly” in Fiscal 2010, the F-35 program’s overall progress continues to lag, said Michael Sullivan, director of acquisition and sourcing management at the Government Accountability Office. “Software development—essential for achieving about 80 percent of [F-35] functionality—is significantly behind schedule as [the program] enters its most challenging phase,” Sullivan told members of the House Armed Services Committee’s tactical air and land forces panel Tuesday. Further, only four percent of the F-35’s capabilities have been fully verified through flight tests and/or lab results, he said. Sullivan characterized the Pentagon’s F-35 restructure as “positive, substantial actions that should lead to more achievable and predictable outcomes.” However, as a result, the aircraft’s development “is now estimated at $56.4 billion to complete in 2018, a 26 percent cost increase and a five-year schedule slip,” he said. (Sullivan’s prepared remarks)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.