USA. House lawmakers want to force the Pentagon to lower F-35 sustainment costs in order to buy more aircraft (Valerie Insinna, Defense News)

An F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 62nd Fighter Squadron prepares to land, Nov. 2, 2020, at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. (Airman 1st Class Brooke Moeder/U.S. Air Force)

House lawmakers upheld language in the fiscal 2022 defense policy bill that would tie the number of F-35s the U.S. military can procure to the cost of sustaining the jet, but an amendment passed Wednesday night could allow the Pentagon to more easily circumvent those cost constraints.

On Monday, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., unveiled his “chairman’s mark” of the FY22 National Defense Authorization Act, which included provisions that would pose affordability constraints on how many F-35s the military can buy or maintain at a time.

House lawmakers want to force the Pentagon to lower F-35 sustainment costs in order to buy more aircraft (defensenews.com)