Posted on 04/29/2016 9:59:04 AM PDT by maddog55
It takes 2,590 military personnel, government civilians and full-time equivalent contractors and $70 million per year to run the world’s largest and most expensive military aircraft program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
That’s according to the US Defense Department's F-35 chief Lt Gen Christopher Bogdan, who disclosed the staff count and annual budget of the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) at a congressional hearing about the $379 billion fighter procurement this week.
The numbers include the two F-35 test forces located Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland and Edwards AFB in California.
Headquartered near the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, the JPO is managing the acquisition of 2,443 aircraft for the US military services as well as hundreds more for the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Australia, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Israel, Japan and South Korea.
The acquisition has almost doubled in cost since the F-35 development contract was awarded to the fighter jet's manufacturer Lockheed Martin in October 2001. To date, 179 aircraft have been delivered compared to the 1,013 that were forecast 15 years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at flightglobal.com ...
And so far the development budget is close to $400 BILLION! For ONE weapons system!
$70 million seems low if the “staff” is 2,590 people.
Averages 27k. Even if you have 500 of them over 100k, 2000 people splitting 20 million doesn’t add up. I bet they left off a zero.
A little over $27,000 a year per FTE. That’s really cheap to for running two testing programs. Sounds like the taxpayers are getting a real bargain.
if they had 2590 staff full time engaged in shoveling hundred dollar bills into an incinerator, it would cost less and produce a more useful product
70 billion is probably closer to the truth. This is a federal government program and the whitest of white elephants.
Much of this is attributable to blind regulation and non-value added documentation and reporting.
Also, a lack of true experts who participate in endless meetings, feeling obligated to justify their existence by asking stupid questions.
Aside from that, this is a very complex aircraft, with far flung subcontractors, in every congressional district, to maintain political support.
“And so far the development budget is close to $400 BILLION!”
Criminal Class & Military Brass.
The F-35 has turned into a 'CLOWARD & PIVEN' money pit for the progressive Marxist regime.
And now we see the true capability of the F-35
One person per planned aircraft purchased.
You need to understand DoD accounting. There is a seperate personnel budget. The $70M is their walking around money - to ay for offices supplies, official travel, etc., outside consultants, etc
I thought the $70m cost estimate was low, also. Having spent four years in DC, I figured that the estimate didn’t include the salaries of the military personnel assigned to the project. It’s actually worse than that: it doesn’t include the salaries of the civilians either.
From the article:
“The JPO staffing numbers were requested by US Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Senator John McCain, an outspoken F-35 critic, who said at the hearing on 26 April that the programme’s record of performance ‘has been both a scandal and a tragedy’.”
“The information that I have is it’s nearly 3,000 [staff] and the cost is $300 million a year. But $70 million a year to run an office is pretty disturbing,” McCain said in response the JPO numbers.
‘I think the difference between the number Senator McCain mentioned, at least on the dollar side, is the bill for navy and air force civilians and military personnel. [That bill] doesn’t come to me.’
Somehow I suspect President Trump will look at this fiasco and finally get the plane in on time and under budget, just as he’s doing with his campaign. The DC mindset, as perfectly illustrated by the Bush and Clinton campaigns, measures results by the amount spent on a project, not the project’s actual outcome.
You need to understand DoD accounting. There is a seperate personnel budget. The $70M is their walking around money
Ah ha. The paper clip and toilet seat budget is $70 mil. Got it.Thanks.
Yeah. The presonnel with overhead, retirement, etc. would be somewhere around $200k - avg. - per person - or closer to $500M. That is, btw, for the acquisition program manager staff. There are a lot of other operational and administrative organizations involved.
Too late to get it under budget.
F-117 developed in 31 months from decision to produce.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-117_Nighthawk
The other planes in the past with similar quick production.
Meanwhile the F-35 does not have a working gun for how many more years?
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