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Analyst: F-35C to Cost $337 Million Apiece in FY15
DOD Buzz ^

Posted on 07/30/2014 6:27:11 PM PDT by ClaytonP

A longtime defense analyst and critic of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program says taxpayers next year will pay between $148 million and $337 million per jet, depending on the model.

Winslow Wheeler, a staff member at the Project On Government Oversight who has worked on national-security issues for the Senate and the Government Accountability Office, detailed his cost estimates for the Lockheed Martin Corp.-made fifth-generation stealth fighter in a recent article on Medium​.com.

Wheeler puts the per-plane production price tag at $148 million for the Air Force’s F-35A, which can take off and land on conventional runways; $251 million for the Marine Corps’ F-35B, which can fly like a plane and hover and land like a helicopter; and $337 million for the Navy’s F-35C, which can take off and land on aircraft carriers. The average cost for all three variants is $178 million, he wrote.

“This data is the empirical, real-world costs to buy, but not to test or develop, an F-35 in 2015,” he wrote. “They should be understood to be the actual purchase price for 2015—what the Pentagon will have to pay to have an operative F-35.”

Wheeler derived the estimates using recent figures from the Senate Appropriations Committee. The figures don’t include research and development costs, but do include funding from the previous year’s appropriations act for “advance procurement” and from aircraft modifications.

Wheeler rejects the use of an aircraft’s so-called flyaway cost to describe its true expense because, he wrote, “those airplanes are incapable of operative flight. They lack the specialized tools, simulators, logistics computers — and much, much more — to make the airplane usable. They even lack the fuel to fly away.”

Michael Rein, a spokesman for Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed’s F-35 program, didn’t immediately return an e-mail seeking comment to the article.

Joe DellaVedova, a spokesman for the Pentagon’s F-35 program office, disputed Wheeler’s estimates, saying they’re misleading and don’t reflect what the department contracts for the planes.

Under the most recent production contract with Lockheed, the department in 2013 agreed to pay $112 million per F-35A, $139 million per F-35B and $130 million per F-35C, DellaVedova said. Those figures, known as unit recurring flyaway costs, include the airframe, engine, mission systems, profit and concurrency, he said.

The government has also shifted from bearing all the financial risk in the program to sharing it with Lockheed and Pratt & Whitney, which makes the F135 engine for the single-engine fighter, DellaVedova said in an e-mail. The contractors now cover 100 percent of any cost overruns and 50 percent of concurrency costs, he said.

“Affordability is the No. 1 priority for the F-35 program,” he said. “You can have the best airplane in the world, but if nobody can afford it, it does you no good. We are doing all we can to drive prices down and we are making a difference.”

Kevin Brancato, a senior defense analyst at Bloomberg Government, said in an e-mail that Wheeler’s estimates appear to be correct, but emphasized that the vast majority of the differences between the unit cost of the variants in fiscal 2015 is due to spreading nonrecurring and support costs over fewer aircraft.

Nonrecurring costs include production tooling, money for buying out parts that will be difficult to source later and money for cost-reduction initiatives, while support costs pay for engineering related to production, he said.

“The Navy’s C variant will be far more expensive in FY15 than the other variants because the Navy will pay $170 million in nonrecurring costs and $247 million in support costs while buying only two aircraft,” Brancato said. “That’s $416 million in total, or $208 million per jet, before the cost of airframes, electronics and engines.

“In contrast, the nonrecurring and support costs are $78 million for each Marine Corps B variant, and just $37 million for each Air Force A variant,” he said. “For fiscal 2015, the Marines requested six jets and the Air Force requested 26.”

Meanwhile, recurring unit production costs — the airframes, electronics and engines — will continue to decline for the F-35A and F-35B, Brancato said. For the F-35C, the number being built will drop to two from four, which will drive up the cost of the airframe, yet the cost of the electronics and engines will still go down, he said.

The Joint Strike Fighter is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons acquisition program, estimated to cost a total of $398.6 billion for a total of 2,457 aircraft. That breaks down to a per-plane cost of $162 million, including research and development.

The Pentagon in its budget for fiscal 2015, which begins Oct. 1, requested $8.3 billion for 34 of the aircraft, including 26 F-35As, 6 F-35Bs and 2 F-35Cs. The House Appropriations Committee voted to buy an additional four aircraft, for a total of 38, while the Senate panel agreed with the Pentagon’s request — a difference that will have to be resolved in conference negotiations.

The fighter jet missed its highly hyped international debut in the United Kingdom earlier this month. It was scheduled to appear for the first time at three events in the U.K., culminating with a flight demonstration at the Farnborough International Air Show outside London. But the aircraft was a no-show after an engine fire in one of the planes resulted in a fleet-wide grounding and subsequent flight restrictions.


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: boondoggle; f35; pos; wasteofmoney
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1 posted on 07/30/2014 6:27:11 PM PDT by ClaytonP
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To: ClaytonP

The F-22 was cancelled for costing $150 million/each


2 posted on 07/30/2014 6:27:43 PM PDT by ClaytonP
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To: ClaytonP

3 for a billion.. crash and carry


3 posted on 07/30/2014 6:29:01 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Revolution is a'brewin!!!)
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To: ClaytonP

The Navy would be better off buying more FA-18s.


4 posted on 07/30/2014 6:29:10 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (The cure has become worse than the disease. Support an end to the WOD now.)
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To: ClaytonP

My SIL is an engineer on the VTOL fan.
He makes good money.... ;-)


5 posted on 07/30/2014 6:30:56 PM PDT by nascarnation (Toxic Baraq Syndrome: hopefully infecting a Dem candidate near you)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I was always partial to Phantoms F4-Bs


6 posted on 07/30/2014 6:35:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Revolution is a'brewin!!!)
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To: ClaytonP
There won't be many more fighters that will require a pilot. I know that sounds sacrilegious to all the flyboys out there, but that day is coming.
7 posted on 07/30/2014 6:35:31 PM PDT by Cry if I Wanna
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To: ClaytonP
"The F-22 was cancelled for costing $150 million/each "

Yep.

I have always been an advocate for putting up another couple hundred Raptors...another 300 BRAND NEW/UPDATED F-15c and probably 500 or so of the newest F-16.

Augmented by a few thousand combat drones controlled by the manned aircraft via local links.

MUCH MUCH cheaper and very likely far more effective.

8 posted on 07/30/2014 6:35:52 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: ClaytonP

The Designer Of The F-16 Explains Just How Stupid The F-35 Is.

Pretty alarming interview from a guy who certainly sounds like he knows what he is talking about.

http://digg.com/video/the-designer-of-the-f-15-explains-just-how-inanely-stupid-the-f-35-is


9 posted on 07/30/2014 6:37:26 PM PDT by DJ Taylor (Once again our country is at war,and once again the Democrats have sided with our enemy.)
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To: Cry if I Wanna
" I know that sounds sacrilegious to all the flyboys out there, but that day is coming. "

I usta drink with a guy who ran the training program for the Raptor. He was adamant (I didn't believe him at the time) that the F35 would be the LAST manned aircraft purchased by DOD. There were strategic thinkers even then that wanted that distinction to fall on the Raptor.

10 posted on 07/30/2014 6:38:31 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: ClaytonP

Exactly what was this plane supposed to do that the F-22 doesn’t do? I forget.


11 posted on 07/30/2014 6:39:17 PM PDT by SeeSharp
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Obsolete..? still mess up a tent party at the al qaeda inn..

12 posted on 07/30/2014 6:39:51 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Revolution is a'brewin!!!)
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To: NormsRevenge

Those were junk compared to the F-86 Sabrejet.


13 posted on 07/30/2014 6:40:27 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: NormsRevenge

The F-4 is proof that a brick will fly if you put an engine big enough. (snicker)


14 posted on 07/30/2014 6:41:27 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (The cure has become worse than the disease. Support an end to the WOD now.)
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To: ClaytonP

I have read more than once that the F-15 is the most successful fighter ever.


15 posted on 07/30/2014 6:44:58 PM PDT by yarddog (Romans 8: verses 38 and 39. "For I am persuaded".)
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To: SeeSharp

Land on carriers, replace harriers, attack ground targets, and be supplied to allies.


16 posted on 07/30/2014 6:45:38 PM PDT by TexasGunLover ("Either you're with us or you're with the terrorists."-- President George W. Bush)
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To: DJ Taylor

Thanks for that link.


17 posted on 07/30/2014 6:48:21 PM PDT by ClaytonP
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To: SeeSharp

Cost more?


18 posted on 07/30/2014 6:49:49 PM PDT by Flick Lives ("I can't believe it's not Fascism!")
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To: Blood of Tyrants

lolol.. 2 engines and it made a lot of noise.. and smoked like the dickens..


19 posted on 07/30/2014 6:53:16 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Revolution is a'brewin!!!)
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To: ClaytonP

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..They were flying these cool X-wing fighters.


20 posted on 07/30/2014 6:54:31 PM PDT by yarddog (Romans 8: verses 38 and 39. "For I am persuaded".)
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