Defense spending bill includes funding for 11 additional Joint Strike Fighters

摘要

The fiscal year 2016 omnibus appropriations legislation contains funding for 11 additional Joint Strike Fighters -including six to replace AV-8B Harriers that were lost in Afghanistan in 2012. And although it funds additional aircraft, the bill would cut more than $100 million from the program's follow-on development effort. In March, the Marine Corps submitted an FY-16 unfunded priorities list that included the additional F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing aircraft. Last year, Congress said no to a reprogramming request from the service that would have yielded the six new JSFs. The FY-16 National Defense Authorization Act also approved the Marine Corps' request for additional F-35s. The FY-16 defense spending bill also includes funding for six more F-35As for the Air Force and an additional two F-35C carrier-variant aircraft for the Navy.