Taxpayer costs soar on F-35 upgrades

Taxpayer costs soar on F-35 upgrades

Escalating costs for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are pushing up the taxpayers’ costs of modernizing the nation’s military weapons, the Department of Defense told Congress on Friday.

The cost of the stealth fighter increased by 4.3 percent to $395.7 billion last year, the Defense Department said in a mandatory annual report to U.S. lawmakers on the costs of major acquisition programs.

The government has committed to proceeding with the Joint Strike Fighter, despite its rising costs, to modernize the attack fleets of the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, along with those of U.S. allies. The F-35 is in the development and testing phase.

The Defense Department estimates it will cost $1.1 trillion during the next 55 years to develop, build, operate and maintain the F-35s. The United States plans to buy 2,443 of the planes, but is delaying purchases in early years in an effort to reduce expenses.

The F-35 program office is in Crystal City, Va., not far from the Pentagon. The Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base provides support for the Air Force portion of the program.

Lockheed Martin Corp., prime contractor for the F-35, said the government’s decision to delay production of 179 F-35s to beyond 2020 will add $60 billion to long-term costs because those planes will be delivered in later years when inflation rates likely will drive up expenses.

Regarding Washington’s long-term cost estimate for the F-35, Lockheed noted that it is the first time the Pentagon has ever projected an aviation program’s costs over so long a time, including adjustments for anticipated inflation in future years.

Defense industry analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, in a column this week, questioned how the Pentagon can accurately predict inflation rates decades in advance.

Still, Lockheed is under pressure to “guarantee some reasonable unit cost so that customers feel comfortable in ordering at a specific unit price,” said Richard Aboulafia, a defense analyst with Teal Group Corp.

Some U.S. allies interested in the F-35 have been hesitant to commit to orders, he said.

“This is a cost-sensitive market,” Aboulafia said.

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