Is the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program simply too big to fail? That's the question Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) asked top Pentagon officials just months after he took over the gavel of the Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee. Durbin is known more for his political skills and his close ties to President Barack Obama than for his acumen on defense issues. As such, his chairmanship of the panel, which distributes roughly half of all federal discretionary spending, marks a new era for a committee that has traditionally been led by far more hawkish lawmakers. It is telling, then, that one of Durbin's first moves as chair was to focus intently on the international F-35 program, by far the most expensive single acquisition program in Pentagon history. The Department of Defense plans to buy 2,443 of the stealthy strike fighters through 2037 to replace old Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps fighters. But much of the planned procurement of the F-35s dovetails with a sudden downturn in defense spending, making it a potential target for cutters either within DOD or on Capitol Hill.
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机译：F-35联合打击战斗机计划是否太大而无法失败？这就是参议员理查德·德宾（Richard J. Durbin）（美国伊利诺伊州）在接任参议院国防拨款小组委员会的木槌几个月后才问到的问题。杜宾以其政治技巧和与巴拉克·奥巴马（Barack Obama）的紧密联系而闻名，而不是他在国防问题上的敏锐度。这样一来，他担任委员会主席的职位大约分配了所有联邦可支配支出的一半，这标志着一个委员会的新时代，该委员会历来由鹰派立法者领导。因此，这说明杜宾担任主席的第一个举动之一就是专心致力于国际F-35计划，这是五角大楼历史上最昂贵的单一采购计划。国防部计划在2037年前购买2443架隐形战斗机，以取代旧的空军，海军和海军陆战队的战斗机。但是F-35的许多计划采购都与国防开支的突然下降相吻合，这使其成为国防部内部或国会山上的切割工的潜在目标。
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