Joe Lieberman

So what would you do if you were Secretary of the Army today with this program?

Is the concern you have about the fact that we're putting a lot of money in, and the systems are not going to be able to be delivered on time, ready on time, or are not going to be able to be purchasable on time, or is it that they are…

It's a FAR-based contract.

Thank you, Senator Inhofe. Thanks for your questions.

I'm going to come back and ask you about Secretary Gates' 80 percent solution idea which seems to respond to some of what all four of you said.

You can disagree without having partisan attacks against one another.

Yes, understood. I know, Mr. Duma, the DOT&E did not agree that increment 1 provided an increased operational capability.

This is a key part of our modernization strategy.

You're investing a set amount of money, and you may not get what you asked for in the end.

I think what we have found consistently over 15 years of looking at these programs and I would say this now, there does seem to be some reason for optimism with the acquisition reforms that are in place.

In other words, you'd acquire fewer now because you don't have that full confidence.

Thanks very much, Senator Hagan. Good questions.

I think the Secretary of Defense made some big leadership decisions and got some attention last year.

I appreciate what you said about the resources that were going to be given to Comanche being used in other ways that have been effective.

In other words, technologies that are mature out in the commercial marketplace.

I think that was a good use of funds.

The Army looked at its requirements, holistically, and I think made the right decision on the Comanche program to reinvest in Army aviation.

So that's important. Excuse me for interrupting. But are you talking about technological overreach, not financial overreach, for instance?

Thanks very much, Mr. Duma. We'll have 7-minute rounds of questions.

As I mentioned briefly in my opening statement, as you look back over the last period of time the Army's largest modernization programs have not really been successful and stable.

I continue to marvel at the extraordinary performance of America's Army.

These considerations give rise to the possibility that, like the Navy, the Air Force should be considering a mix of 5th generation aircraft like the F-35 and some portion of the fleet that would be perfectly capable of operating in wartime…

The timely delivery of the F-35B and F-35C remains critical to our future strike fighter capacity.

Over the past couple of years, we have heard that the potential strike fighter shortfall could be 125 aircraft, or 243 aircraft, or, according to the latest analysis of the various steps the Navy could take, anywhere between about 40 and…

I am particularly concerned in this regard with the Marine Corps' intent to accept the JSF in its Block 2B configuration.