Gen. Amos, Adm. Greenert: F-35 Essential But Procurement 'Constipated'

http://defense.aol.com/2013/04/08/gen-amos-adm-greenert-f-35-essential-but-procurement-consti/



Gen. Amos, Adm. Greenert: F-35 Essential But Procurement 'Constipated'
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Published: April 8, 2013

NATIONAL HARBOR: The top officers in the Navy and Marine Corps defended their most expensive program, Lockheed Martin's troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, while acknowledging the way the Pentagon buys such weapons is not merely broken but "constipated."

"There's no alternative for the United States Marine Corps to the F-35B," Commandant Gen. James Amos said at the opening session of the Navy League's annual Sea-Air-Space conference. "I want to make that crystal clear to everybody in the audience." All the great aircraft of the past have gone through teething troubles in development, said Amos, a pilot himself.

"Speaking for the Navy," added the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, "I need the fifth-generation fighter, and that (F-35) provides it, so we're all in -- but it has to perform. It has problems; it is making progress."

"I do not at this point believe that it is time to look for an exit ramp, if you will, for the Navy for the F-35C," continued Greenert, who in the past has damned the Joint Strike Fighter with similar faint praise.