Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee are criticizing appropriators for wanting to purchase more F-35 fighter jets in fiscal 2025 than the Pentagon’s budget request. The House’s FY25 defense spending bill proposes to buy 76 new F-35s, eight more than requested by the Defense Department, conflicting with the House’s FY25 National Defense Authorization Act which aims to cut procurement down to 58 aircraft. Representatives Adam Smith and Donald Norcross have highlighted concerns about the program’s cost and performance issues and introduced an amendment to reduce F-35 procurement in the spending bill, but the proposed reduction was not put to a vote.
Efforts to reduce F-35 procurement are at odds with Senate plans to procure 68 F-35s, the same number requested by the Pentagon. Amid bipartisan scrutiny of Lockheed Martin for delays, Rep. Seth Moulton sought provisions to seize intellectual property from the company to address software problems. Despite frustrations with Lockheed Martin’s execution of the F-35 program, concerns remain about the potential high costs of seizing intellectual property. The final decision on F-35 procurement will rest with appropriators in the defense spending bill.
