US Congress directly threatens F35 program

On the occasion of the study of the Pentagon's 2022 budget, the American Congress has radically changed its tone about the F35 program, even threatening its continuation. "If the program were to continue to fail to control and reduce the maintenance costs of the F35 program, we may have to invest in a new, less expensive program" declared bluntly the Democratic Representative of the 3rd District of California John Garamendi, chairman of the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee. And to add that considering the list of faults of the device, he would not support, nor his committee, the traditional increase of the orders during his passage to Congress.

Let us recall that the American Congress has always, until now at least, been a fervent defender of the program, and to systematically increase the annual number of devices requested by the budget presented by the President in exercise: +14 devices in 2021 (+ 6 Turkish aircraft transferred to the UAF), + 20 aircraft in 2020 ... But the program is now under the crossfire of many criticisms, not only given its some 800 malfunctions, but the fact that despite the repeated promises of industrial, the F35s in service are still not able to fully fulfill their missions, and successive updates to try to achieve this see delays as additional costs accumulate.

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