The director of combat testing at the US Defense Department has said that the incoming Trump administration ought to undertake a “rigorous and comprehensive review” of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jet programme.
Michael Gilmore, who left the post as testing director when Donald Trump took office as president last week, cited the fighter’s “significant and well-documented deficiencies in critical combat capabilities” in a letter to House of Representatives Armed Services Committee chairman William McClellan Thornberry, who is a strong supporter of the F-35.
While Mr Trump recently tweeted that “the F-35 programme and its costs are out of control,” Pentagon officials say the aeroplane is now “essentially on schedule” and close to meeting its budget after earlier problems.
However, in his letter, Mr Gilmore focused on “unresolved performance issues” in the $55 billion development phase.
“These must be resolved before the aircraft can enter intense combat testing,” he wrote.
He added that the Defense Department’s F-35 programme office “has no plan to adequately fix and verify hundreds of these deficiencies, using flight testing within its currently planned schedule and resources.
“Deploying F-35s with capable mission systems is critical to our national security, but the programme now is at high risk of sacrificing essential combat performance.”