Summary: The key objective of the Joint Strike Fighter acquisition strategy is affordability--reducing the development, production, and ownership costs of the program relative to earlier fighter aircraft programs. The Pentagon expects the Joint Strike Fighter acquisition strategy to save nearly $18 billion in development costs. To achieve these savings, the program has incorporated various military and commercial acquisition initiatives into the acquisition strategy. However, the program's implementation of the acquisition strategy will not guarantee that the Joint Strike Fighter program will enter the engineering and manufacturing phase with low technical risk. The planes being produced during the concept demonstration phase are not intended to demonstrate many of the technologies considered critical for achieving Joint Strike Fighter program cost and performance requirements. Instead, many of these technologies--such as avionics, flight systems, manufacturing and producibility, propulsion, supportability, and weapons delivery systems--will only be demonstrated in laboratory or ground-testing environments. Therefore, these critical technologies will be at low levels of technical maturity when the engineering and manufacturing development contract is schedule to be awarded. To demonstrate DOD's commitment to acquisition reform, follow best commercial practices, and reduce the risk of future cost growth, the program should focus on risk reduction efforts by maturing critical technologies before entering engineering and manufacturing development and it should be allowed to do so without the penalty of withdrawal of funding support.
