Sen. John Cornyn to approve Ashton Carter for Pentagon post

Sep 15

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Sen. John Cornyn says he will vote to approve the nomination of a top Pentagon official whom he criticized just three weeks ago for not supporting the F-35 joint strike fighter strongly enough.

At a Senate hearing Tuesday, Cornyn briefly praised Ashton Carter and said he would vote for his confirmation as deputy secretary of defense.

Cornyn’s remarks came after several of his colleagues, notably Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., were extremely critical of the F-35 program and pressed Carter on the importance of controlling “intolerable cost overruns.”

On Aug. 24, Cornyn wrote a letter to Carter “to express disappointment with your apparent lack of commitment to the success” of the F-35 and to urge “you to step up your defense of this key program.”

Cornyn was also critical of the Pentagon buying more Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets rather than spending the money on the F-35.

As the Pentagon’s head of weapons acquisition, Carter has had to restructure and rebudget the program twice in two years to compensate for delays and cost increases as Lockheed Martin struggled to get airplanes built and flying.

So what changed in the last three weeks?

“Dr. Carter assured me that the F-35 will form the backbone of U.S. air combat for generations to come, and I applaud him for improving the execution of this critical program,” Cornyn said in a statement issued after the hearing.

Carter wrote a letter to Cornyn in which he largely reiterated his past comments and official Pentagon policy on the F-35. Carter said that there are “no alternatives” to the F-35 as the nation’s principal future warplane and that his “focus is on managing the cost and making decisions now that will affect affordability in the future.”

The twin specters of soaring weapons costs, with the F-35 as the leading culprit, and likely defense budget cuts hang over Carter’s confirmation hearing.

He assured the senators that his primary focus, after getting needed weapons and supplies to troops in the field, will be curtailing costs.

Those threats were manifested when a separate Senate panel, the defense appropriations subcommittee, voted to cut $26 billion from the Pentagon’s $656.8 billion budget request for 2012, including trimming $695 million from the F-35 program.

The subcommittee action is one step in the budget process that will unfold in coming weeks as Congress cuts spending to meet deficit reduction targets mandated last month.

Separately on Monday, Cornyn and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., introduced legislation that would require the Obama administration to allow Lockheed Martin to sell F-16s to Taiwan. The jets would be built in Fort Worth.

“This sale is a win-win, in strengthening the national security of our friend Taiwan as well as our own, and supporting tens of thousands of jobs in the U.S.,” Cornyn said in a statement. “Saying no here would mean granting Communist China substantial sway over American foreign policy, putting us on a very slippery slope.”
-sanluisobispo.com

U.S. fighter jet transported back home using cargo jet

Aug 25

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The 451st Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron aerial port flight assisted the C-5 Galaxy’s loadmaster crew in successfully loading an F/A-18 Super Hornet into the Galaxy’s cargo bay on Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.

The Hornet experienced malfunctions which caused it to divert and land at Kandahar Airfield while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom last March. Upon landing, the aircraft experienced hot brakes and upon stopping, both brakes were engulfed in flames. The Kandahar, Fire and Rescue extinguished the fire, but the right fuselage was severely damaged.

Charles Miller, the F/A-18 deputy program manager, and a team of four Defense Department civilians have been preparing to recover the aircraft in order to bring it back to the U.S. to Fleet Readiness Center Southwest to perform the necessary repairs since July.
The preparation included coordinating with senior leadership at the Navy’s Commander of Naval Air Forces and the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command in order to obtain the required certification to transport the aircraft back on a C-5 to Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, Calif.

“Typically, an aircraft would be flown back to the states if the damage was minor,” said Miller. “But this F/A-18 sustained substantial damage which our engineering support team determined to be critical and unflyable.”

The C-5 aircrew was eager for the opportunity.

“We’re willing to help any of our sister services who need it,” said Air Force Maj. Steven Hertenstein, the pilot of the C-5 Galaxy who is deployed from Travis Air Force Base, Calif. “Carrying cargo is what this aircraft was designed to do, and we’re glad to be a part this.”

Source: U.S. Air Force

USMC F/A-18D crew rescued

Aug 12

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Two Marines who were aboard an F/A-18 Hornet were plucked from the water, Thursday, after spending hours in the Pacific Ocean.
The F/A-18 Hornet crashed while flying with another jet that reported it missing around 10:15 p.m., Wednesday and noted debris in the water. The two men ejected safely from their crashing jet fighter. The F/A-18 aircraft was based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

The Navy and U.S. Coast Guard began an air and sea search that included dropping a flare to illuminate the area. Before dawn Thursday, the crew of the Coast Guard cutter Edisto heard the Marines yelling for help and blowing a rescue whistle about 35 miles off the coast and about 85 miles southwest of San Diego.

“They were just basically floating in the water,” Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Henry G. Dunphy said.

A helicopter lowered a rescue swimmer, who plucked the Marines from the water about 2:30 a.m., Dunphy said.It was unclear what survival gear the Marines might have had, and what conditions they faced in the water.

The men were in serious but stable condition at Naval Medical Center San Diego. Their names and details of their injuries were not immediately released.

Source: msnbc.com

U.S. Navy to buy 680 F35s

Mar 15

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The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps strike fighter picture will become clearer under an updated inter-service agreement set to be signed March 14, according to a senior defense official.

The Tactical Air memorandum of understanding ratifies the Navy Department’s plan to buy 680 F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighters (JSF), and details the exact mix of variants and who will fly them. Of the total, 260 will be Navy F-35C carrier-based aircraft, 80 will be Marine F-35Cs, and 340 will be Marine F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) planes.

The agreement also reaffirms that Marine F-35Bs and F-35Cs will continue to rotate in and out of deploying carrier air wings, sharing commitments with Navy F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets and F-35Cs.

The agreement formalizes an earlier decision not to deploy F-35Bs from carriers, but rather to have all Marine squadrons deploying on carriers flying the same C version as their Navy compatriots. The STOVLs will operate from land bases and amphibious ships.

The first Navy F-35C carrier squadron is set to stand up in December 2015, with the first Marine F-35C squadron following a year later.

By the mid-2020s, according to Navy planners, each carrier air wing will include two Super Hornet squadrons and two Lightning II squadrons. Every fourth F-35C squadron will be a Marine unit.

The Navy continues to plan for a fleet of 10 carrier air wings, with 44 strike fighters per wing, organized into 10- and 12-plane squadrons. The Navy will field 35 strike fighter squadrons composed of Super Hornets or F-35Cs, and the Marines will field five F-35C squadrons.

- Defensenews