Navy examining data on possible fighter gap - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Navy examining data on possible fighter gap

Two Navy admirals and a Marine Corps general told lawmakers Tuesday they needed to do more research and inspections before they had solid details about the so-called “fighter gap” of aging aircraft that officials warn could hit as soon as four years from now.

Although the Navy has said many of its early F/A-18 Hornet fighters will wear out before the F-35 Lightning II comes online to replace them, the witnesses before the House Armed Services seapower subcommittee said the Navy still must inspect hundreds of jets before it knows which ones can have their lives extended.

The Navy is trying to determine whether to extend the lives of its existing Hornets, buy new ones, speed up production of the Lightning II, or find some other way to fill the gap.

Rear Adm. Allen Myers, the Navy’s director of naval warfare integration, said based on data from last year, the Navy still thought its “fighter gap” could be about 70 fighters starting in 2013, although that could range up to 129. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., the subcommittee’s ranking member, cited other data that put the top end of the gap at 243 planes, or even as many as 300.

Akin and other lawmakers tried to assess the costs involved with replacing various parts on worn-out Hornets — including the aircrafts’ center barrels, wings and engines — versus the cost of buying new ones, assuming the F-35 debuts as planned.

After a back-and-forth exchange with Myers and the other witnesses, Akin appeared to grow frustrated: “I feel like I’m trying to nail Jell-O to a wall, gentlemen,” he said. “No matter how you look at the numbers, you’re coming up short on fighter planes.”

Part of the confusion apparently was because the Navy and Marine Corps witnesses had come to the hearing with newer information than had been provided to lawmakers. At one point, Akin held up a chart from which he was taking statistics to form his questions, and Lt. Gen. George Trautman, deputy commandant for aviation programs, said he thought its data was out of date.

Myers acknowledged the Navy’s own analysis had outpaced what Congress had evidently been told.

“We owe you better and more current information,” Myers said. “In March, sir, that was the best that we had. We owe you the benefit of understanding what we think the future is going to hold in terms of F-35 production and ongoing [service life assessment programs] and [service life extension programs].”

When will Congress have hard information about the fighter gap, Akin asked.

Myers said the Navy would have to get back to him. It’s is in the second phase of a three-phase life assessment for its aircraft, he said, so he expected the service would have a much stronger understanding of its Hornet fleet by the end of this summer.