Report: F-35 Costs Are Now Double From What Was Originally Projected

Cost Of F-35 Has Risen 60% To 90%, Military Says -- New York Times

The projected cost of Lockheed Martin’s new Joint Strike Fighter has increased 60 to 90 percent in real terms since 2001, blowing well past a level requiring the program to be revamped, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

And even though the military is trying to deal with the problems, Congressional auditors said the program — the Pentagon’s largest — was likely to continue to increase in cost and suffer more delays.

Read more ....

More News On The F-35

Pentagon: F-35 fighter jet cost doubles -- AP
DoD: F-35 to Breach Nunn-McCurdy Limits by 50% -- Defense News
F-35 Fighters Now Double the Cost -- ABC News
JSF Costs Rocket 50 Percent -- DoD Buzz
Price of Lockheed's F-35 fighter soars -- Reuters
Joint Strike Fighter soars to $95M -- Politico
GAO analyst says cost overruns, delays continue to plague F-35 program -- Washington Post
Fighter jet program faces budget blowout -- ABC News (Australia)
Fighter jet's costs jump more than 50 percent -- GovExec
Pentagon tells Senate panel that F-35 is more than 50 percent over cost -- The Hill
Senators want answers on fighter -- Politico
F-35 Beset by More Delays, Cost Overruns -- CQ Politics

My Comment: Sen. John McCain pointed out that the news about the jet's increase in price was buried on the fifth page of testimony. Add in lines like "too big to fail" into the testimony, plus projected delays and (probably) more delays .... we are now in a situation where the F-35 program is rapidly becoming one giant and expensive lemon.

The cost advantage over the F-22 plane .... a far superior aircraft .... is now becoming moot. I can now easily predict that when the F-35 fighter starts to roll off the assembly line, it will be more expensive that the F-22.

Long time readers of this blog know that I have been a critic of the F-35 program and a supporter of the F-22 .... but in my wildest dreams I never thought that it would become this large of a boondoggle.