The Pentagon is slowing down testing and acquisition of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz acknowledged Jan. 20.

"The path we were on was too aggressive, so there's an effort underway to reduce concurrency, to lengthen the period associated with testing, to increase the number of test assets and make the production rate somewhat less ambitious," Schwartz said during a briefing with reporters in Washington.

"While it would have been ideal to go without adjustment, there are very few programs of this sophistication that I'm aware of that have not required some adjustment," said Schwartz. "This is in the larger interest of the larger attack community that will rely on" the jet.The F-35 will be ready for initial operational capability with the Air Force in 2013, Schwartz said.

He said the adjustment is meant to ensure that large numbers of F-35s can be built problem-free when it comes time to replace U.S. and allied fighter fleets toward the end of the decade.

Schwartz added that he did not think the jet was going to breach the Nunn-McCurdy statute's limits on cost growth in weapon programs.

His comments come a week after a leaked U.S. Navy analysis document said the F-35 would be considerably more expensive to operate than the Navy and Marine Corps' current tactical fighters.

"I have not yet had an opportunity to validate for myself the accuracy of that analysis," Schwartz said, adding that he did not accept the findings of this analysis "at face value."

Still, he said he acknowledged that operating costs are a serious issue, and that he would be troubled if the analysis turns out to be accurate.

"If there are issues related to cost of operations, we'll find remedies and mitigations; we have to," he said.

Many have said that the Pentagon has no choice but to make sure the F-35 program succeeds since the existing U.S. fighter fleet is rapidly closing in on its retirement date.

TANKER NEWS

Schwartz also said he expects the final request for proposals (RfP) in the $35 billion KC-X tanker competition will be released in February, with only modest changes to the requirements listed in the draft RfP that was put out in September.

The final solicitation was supposed to have been released in early December. However, last fall Pentagon officials decided to delay its release until mid-January so they could discuss the RfP with competitors Boeing and Northrop Grumman-EADS. This came as Northrop claimed the cost-focused document was written in favor of Boeing's 767-based bid over Northrop's larger Airbus A330-based plane.

Northrop has threatened to drop out of the competition unless the solicitation is changed significantly to take into account the increased performance of its larger, more expensive plane.

The final RfP will likely feature changes to the contracting structure that will result in less financial risk for the winning competitor. Both competitors have complained about the fixed price nature of the contract laid out in the draft RfP.