Posted on 03/11/2010 7:31:20 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The Joint Strike Fighter next generation warplane for US and allied forces may end up costing more than 100 million dollars per plane, a Pentagon official told Congress Thursday.
This would mean the final cost would be double the initial estimate when the contract was awarded in 2001 for the JSF, the costliest weapons program to date for the Pentagon.
Christine Fox, director of the Defense Department's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that "the current program estimate based on jet two numbers will be somewhere between 80 and 95 million dollars in constant year (2002) baseline dollars. We are refining that estimate now."
That would mean between 95 million and 113 million dollars per unit in current dollars, irritated lawmakers pointed out.
"The taxpayers are a little tired of this, and I can't say I blame them," Senator John McCain told the hearing.
US officials now estimate Washington's bill for the program will be more than 300 billion dollars. Washington expects to buy more than 2,400 of the new aircraft to update the fleet of warplanes for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
The plane also known as the F-35 to be manufactured by Lockheed Martin is expected to be ready in 2016, well behind the original schedule of first deliveries in 2012.
The fighter's development was funded by an international consortium led by the United States.
Britain, Australia, Canada, Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Norway and the Netherlands have signed on for the next phase of production and follow-on development of the fighter.
(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...
It’s nice of McStain to think of the taxpayers, but he’s no friend of anyone’s wallet if he wants to bring herbal supplements under the purview of the FDA and require medical prescriptions for buying them... what he might save the taxpayer on the JSF - $1 per taxpayer per plane, he will cost them many times more if you have to pay a doctor a $20 copay or a $200 visit PER SUPPLEMENT that you want to try.
abolish the entire thing. Seriously! If you keep allowing these companies to lie about how much it cost, so they can win the contract without consequence, this will keep happening
Agree.
The JSF screams “junk” to me. It just looks junky. I’d say we should build more F-22 and F-15SE’s (F-15 Silent Eagles).
I posted a link to a Business Week article detailing a 50% cost increase on the F-35 in addition to other troubles.
Shut down the F-35 program, open the Raptor line back up and work with our allies on exporting it. Enough of this.....
F-22’s are ready now....a better plane....can make a lot in 6 years...all ready to keep making more...
(holding up hands in frustration)
They just retro’d the F-15 to a more stealthier version with new AESA radar and the latest electronics - the F-15-S, I think they can update the F-18.
Besides the F-18 has two engines on it. Two is better than one. You can limp home on one if you lose one or have to shut one down.
Agreed. I would look forward to a 4th+ F-18 Stealth version.
Believe it or not, I’m not trying to turn the discussion into health care, but merely comparing McStain’s treatment of taxpayers vs. herbal consumers - who are very often the very same people. For the price of one doctor’s copay ($20-30) per taxpayer (numbering ~100 million) we could have 20 or 30 extra JSFs. Seems like a good value to me.
Bring back the F-22. Do a high low replacing some F-35s with F-22s and others with F-16 Block 60s. The marines and navy still need the F-35.
It not going to be stealthy with bombs and missiles hanging off it.
ping
And therein lies the cost problem. The reason, the ONLY reason why the F-35's costs are increasing, is because of rising development costs spread over fewer early production airframes.
The Air Force are currently scheduled to purchase over 1,700 F-35As and the Navy and Marine Corps a combined 680 -Bs and -Cs.
Drop the Air Force purchase, and the costs per aircraft for the Navy and Marine Corps shoots through the roof.
This is how we ended up with an effective cost of $350 million for each of the 187 F-22s.
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