Congress cuts F-35 spare parts request amid supply problems

UPI ^ | 21 May 2019 | Allen Cone

[blueplum]

May 21 (UPI) -- A U.S. House subcommittee wants to approve only half of the Pentagon's spare parts purchases for F-35 jets in reviewing 2020 budgetary plans.

Last week, the Democrat-led House Appropriations Committee released a draft of the fiscal year 2020 defense funding bill, which includes $690.2 billion in discretionary spending. The legislation includes 90 F-35 aircraft, 12 more than requested, and eight F-15EX aircraft, meant to recapitalize the F-15C/D fleet in the U.S. military. …

The panel plans to approve half of the $728.7 million request for spare parts for Navy and Air Force F-35s until the Pentagon has "received an adequate cost proposal" from Lockheed Martin.

That includes selling cost and technical data rights to the parts...

...The supply chain has a backlog of 4,300 parts for F-35s because of supply chain issues, according to the Government Accountability Office.

A GAO report released in April said the aircraft couldn't fly aabout 30 percent of the time during a seven-month period last year because of shortages and mismatched parts.

[blueplum]

copyright rights?

[Rockingham]

This has emerged as an issue with changes making IP law more stringent and the need for production of new parts after the original supplier has gone out of business. A new supplier does not want to get sued over an IP claim because they fabricate a few hundred new parts for a line of old fighter jets. A few months of patent lawyer bills can quickly consume all the profit and then some.

[mabarker1]

So who is stealing the other half? By that I mean WHICH of the demonratcommiescumbags.

[tired&retired]

Should have purchased the extended factory warranty! /s

[PIF]

Turkey is/was also a manufacture of F-35 parts which seems to be in the process of going away with S-400, S500 and SU-57 purchases

[blueplum]

that would be of concern doing business with XYZ Manufacturing out of Bodunk, USA, but Lockheed?

[HighSierra5]

I guess they won’t be appropriating the money for the border wall.Rats. I hate em.

[mabarker1]

Yep, what we need is A Pied Piper to Lead them All to the River to drown them.

[Psalm 73]

"...cost and technical data rights to the parts...
...The supply chain has a backlog of 4,300 parts..."

Logistics. It's the science behind maintaining an aircraft fleet. And it can be maddening.

[ThunderSleeps]

Lockheed's standard MO, at least for the last 30 or so years I've been dealing with them (as sometimes competitors and sometimes teammates) goes like this. Bid to the exact specifications (good, right?), propose at a price point that is no profit, or even a loss knowing... There are always holes in the proposal specifications, or additional scope, etc. There will always be contract modifications. On these contract mods, charge (perhaps some might say overcharge) and make up initial losses and profit margins.

I have seen them do it over and over and over again. This is obviously the government looking to have the information and rights to go elsewhere for spares rather than paying LM an arm and a leg. LM got themselves into this position with their decades of questionable but legal business practices. Now that's their reputation and they have to live with it. No one trusts any of their bids, and increasingly contracts are written with clauses and performance criteria (cost performance) that allow government proposal evaluators to look at and consider past history.

[Rockingham]

As the prime contractor, Lockheed will be responsible for the IP issues and will now have to resolve them through better contract terms and administration and lawsuits, if necessary. My understanding is that when IP problems arose in the past, Lockheed and other prime contractors were inclined to shrug their shoulders and offer to duplicate the necessary parts at an exorbitant cost to the federal government.

[bgill]

So, now demonrats know more than the Pentagon does about what our military needs. Smells like they’re more concerned with carrying on zero’s plan to destroy the US from the inside.

[AndyJackson]

Lockheed is a system integrator putting together parts made globally