The Price Of The F-35 Will Always Keep On Soaring

Three F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (rear to front) — AF-2, AF-3 and AF-4 — can be seen flying over Edwards Air Force Base in this Dec. 10, 2011, in this handout photo provided by Lockheed Martin. (photo by REUTERS/Lockheed Martin/Darin Russell)

Ciro Scotti, Fiscal Times: Why the Price of the F-35 Keeps Soaring

The General Accounting Office calls the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter “the most expensive and ambitious” weapons project ever undertaken, with acquisition costs of about $400 billion and operating costs of more than $1 trillion over the life of the program.

And the costs to develop the stealthy jet are still rising.

In a just-released report, the GAO says the Department of Defense has begun planning and funding “the development of new capabilities” that will cost taxpayers more than $3.9 billion between now and the end of 2022.

The brief report to the House and Senate Armed Services Committee is primarily about process – whether the so-called “follow-on modernization” should be designated as a major defense acquisition program (MDAP) of its own or whether it should be managed under the existing F-35 program, as the Pentagon prefers.

But the implication in the language of the report is that spending on upgrades to the F-35 will go on indefinitely.

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WNU Editor: Something that the Canadian government should think about before taking this offer from Lockheed .... Lockheed Martin offers F-35 to Canada as 'interim' fighter jet (National Post).