"WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates has directed Pentagon planners to delay purchases of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet to provide additional funding for development and testing.
Gates’ directive would cut planned purchases by 10 jets in fiscal 2011 and a total of 122 planes through 2015, according to a budget document. The cuts amount to 25 percent of the 483 planes originally scheduled in those years.
More than $2.8 billion that was previously budgeted to begin equipping the military with F-35s would instead be used to continue development of the next-generation combat jet.
Lockheed spokesman Chris Geisel, who said the decision might not be final, said the Pentagon plan would merely shift purchases of the aircraft to later years.
Work on the F-35 program is centered at Lockheed’s west Fort Worth assembly plant, where about 7,000 people work on design, development and production of test and early-production aircraft. Lockheed officials have said they expected to begin adding significant numbers of people in 2011-12 to meet orders expected from the U.S. and foreign governments…"
By TONY CAPACCIO
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