At a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) questioned Department of Defense officials about
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NewsTranscript
00:00The DoD plans to buy 2,456 F-35s, and the F-35 is one of the most egregious boondoggles
00:09in the history of the Pentagon.
00:11But if we're going to buy more of those planes, we should at least make sure that they work.
00:17Mr. Belk, if an F-35 engine were to break down at sea on an aircraft carrier, what aircraft
00:25would the Navy use to transport that F-35 engine ashore to be fixed?
00:32So I genuinely mean thank you for the question, because I do believe in this committee's oversight
00:37responsibilities and I appreciate the opportunity to thank you for that.
00:40Mr. Belk, come on.
00:42What engine, what plane would the Navy use to transport the broken F-35 engine?
00:49Congressman, I don't know the answer.
00:51I'm happy to take it back and get you the answer.
00:53Vice Admiral Chebby, do you know the answer?
00:56And the question of what aircraft, the V-22 was designed as one of the requirements for
01:01the CMV-22.
01:02So the CMV-22 would be used, it's essentially one of the Navy's two kind of tow trucks.
01:09Can the C-2, the other kind of tow truck that the Navy flies, can it transport an F-35 engine?
01:16To my knowledge, the C-2 cannot transport an F-35 engine.
01:20In that case, we would put additional spares on the aircraft carrier if we have to have
01:25it supported with the C-2.
01:26Oh, you would put additional spares.
01:27Okay, I'm going to follow up on that.
01:30So the C-2 cannot pick up the F-35 engine because the engine's too large.
01:35So we'd use the CMV-22.
01:37So the military didn't have the common sense to make F-35 engines transportable by all
01:43of the tow trucks it owns, so we're going to use only one of them, the CMV-22.
01:48So Admiral Chubby, why did you not see this coming?
01:55Why did you buy F-35s that your infrastructure can't handle?
02:01Ma'am, I'm here as the NAVAIR commander from an airworthiness perspective to talk about
02:06the safety of the V-22.
02:07I'm going to have to direct that question back to the appropriate personnel to address
02:13the question.
02:14Mr. Belk?
02:15Congressman, I'll have to take that back to the department.
02:19So you don't know why you bought F-35s for billions of dollars and you don't have any
02:25airplanes as we're about to see that can actually pick up the broken engine and fix it.
02:30So on the CMV-22, which is the one plane that we can use to go get this broken engine, let's
02:35say that the F-35 engine broke down in the South China Sea while F-35s are engaged in
02:41securing our national interests from an increasingly assertive China.
02:45Do you know how far it would be to a fully capable maintenance depot, Mr. Belk?
02:51Congressman, I do not.
02:52Admiral Chubby?
02:53Ma'am, can you clarify your question, please?
03:00An F-35 engine is broken down on an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.
03:06How far is it to get that F-35 engine to a place where we can fix it?
03:12Ma'am, I'm going to have to direct it to the F-35 Joint Program Office to kind of answer
03:16that question.
03:17Okay.
03:18It is 7,200 miles to a small facility in Australia and 14,500 miles to a full-scale U.S. facility.
03:25And I'm sure the CMV-22 would not fly all that distance, but it needs to be able to
03:30pick up the engine and get it to the next airport where it can then be flown for repair.
03:37Admiral Chubby, how often is the CMV-22 mission capable?
03:45The overall mission-capable rate?
03:47I do not have that information.
03:48I'm not sure, Gary, if you have that information.
03:49Mr. Kurtz?
03:50I don't have that information.
03:52Mr. Belk?
03:53Ma'am, I do not have that information.
03:54Guys, you're here for a hearing on this very aircraft.
03:58Now, you've been deferring on the F-35, but the CMV-22 is what we're talking about here
04:03today.
04:04It's the Navy's version of the Osprey.
04:06So the data I've seen suggests that it can only fly 44 percent of the time.
04:11It costs $85 million per aircraft, and it can fly 44 percent of the time.
04:15That is absolutely absurd.
04:18So if the military has made fixing an F-35 engine that hard for itself, surely you have,
04:25as you mentioned, Admiral Chubby, spare engines that you can swap in when something goes wrong.
04:32Mr. Belk, has the DoD purchased spare F-35 engines?
04:36Ma'am, I do not know the answer.
04:38No, they have not.
04:39So it's going to be tough to put those on the aircraft carrier, Admiral Chubby, when
04:42you don't have any.
04:44So the only plan we have when an F-35 engine breaks down is to fly it thousands of miles.
04:49But to do that, the plane only works part of the time.
04:52Mr. Belk, how far, how long, excuse me, is the CMV-22 allowed to fly from the nearest airport?
04:59Ma'am, I defer that to you, Admiral Chubby.
05:02Admiral Chubby.
05:03Ma'am, the return-to-flight criteria was based on the data that—
05:09All right, Admiral Chubby, 30 minutes.
05:12So often, the CMV-22 doesn't work more than half the time.
05:15If it works, it's only allowed to fly 30 minutes from an airport.
05:20But these failures both leave the F-35 with broken engines stranded on aircraft carriers.
05:26And get this, we're still buying more of these incredibly expensive F-35 jets.
05:31And we're doing that knowing that we cannot fix those engines because the CMV-22 is a disaster.
05:38And by the way, you all want to buy more of those too.
05:42Admiral Chubby, do you stand by this state of affairs?
05:47Would you like to blame Mr. Belk or Mr. Kurtz?
05:50Ma'am, the F-35 Charlie readiness levels aboard aircraft carriers is above 90%.
05:56Okay, 10% of the time, it isn't ready and the engine might be part of it.
06:00I'm asking you, should we spend billions of dollars on F-35s that you cannot repair?
06:09Ma'am, my objective as the NAVAIR commander is to make sure I deliver the warfighting capability
06:15the fleet needs to win at a cost we can afford.
06:19My objective, Mr. Chubby, Admiral Chubby, my objective as a U.S. congressperson is to
06:25make sure that our tax dollars are being spent to actually keep us safe.
06:30Not line the pockets of defense contractors for boondoggles.
06:34I yield back.
06:37Thank you, Mr. Perry.
06:39Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
06:40Gentlemen, it's good to see you here.
06:42Thank you very much.
06:43I've got some questions for you.