WASHINGTON — Most of the Defense Department's fleet of fighter and attack planes, known as "tactical aircrafts," have outlived their planned service lives.
The Air Force F-16 is 31 years old. The Marine Corps F/A-18-D Hornet is 28 years' old. Even the Navy F/A-18 E and F Super Hornets are already 13.5 years old.
And a key piece of the DOD's modernization plan--the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter--is over a decade behind schedule and $165 billion over original cost estimates.
These concerns have long been on the Congressional radar.
"We are not able to deliver replacement aircraft at affordable prices to achieve similar quantities going forward," Rep. Rob Wittman said (R-Virginia, 1st District) during a hearing last week of the House Armed Services Tactical Land and Air Forces Subcommittee that he chairs.
Further complicating matters, The Government Accountability Office in a new report says the Pentagon "lacks key portfolio-level analysis to better inform its decisions."
"They've never looked DOD-wide across all the platforms to understand what capabilities and quantities may be deficient," Jon Ludwigson said, director of contracting and national security acquisition for the GAO, in an interview with 13News Now.
Ludwigson said an integrated portfolio-level analysis across all tactical aircraft investments would provide the DoD and Congress with needed insight into interdependencies, risks, and trade-offs among some of DOD's highest priority and biggest investments.
"This is a really complex, costly and important effort. We think that they really need to update the business case as it relates to the engines and build in the need for oversight going forward," he said.