AWST:
Dutch Wait To Clarify JSF Stance
LONDON — The way forward for the Netherlands on the specific structure of its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter involvement is not expected to crystallize until midyear.
With a caretaker government operating in the country and the Pentagon in the midst of restructuring the F-35 program, Dutch Defense State Secretary Jack de Vries signaled to lawmakers that a number of issues will remain in flux for several months. Chief among those is determining the actual average procurement unit cost and the life-cycle costs projected for the F-35.
De Vries told legislators to expect an update around June, when new figures will emerge as the U.S. completes its update on the projected average procurement unit cost linked to the Nunn-McCurdy recertification process. That review is now underway and could result in a higher unit cost estimate than the $93 million to $112 million unit price (in 2010 dollars) used in the planning baseline in the Pentagon’s April 1 selected acquisition reports.
The new program plan also could affect when the Netherlands starts buying production F-35s. An initial program schedule called for those purchases to begin slowly in 2012, with the first two of 85 eventual units to be put on contract.
Also up in the air is the Dutch plan to buy two Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (IOT&E) aircraft. The first already has been ordered and is due for delivery next year. Given the political situation in the Netherlands, the Dutch government is holding off on buying the second IOT&E asset.
De Vries also confirmed to lawmakers that there is an option for the Netherlands to dispose of the first IOT&E aircraft already ordered, although that would come at a still-undetermined cost.