All-in costs for troubled F-35 fighter jet program price tag likely to top $2 trillion, GAO says

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The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon’s most ambitious weapons program ever, has been plagued with mounting costs and delays that will result in a price tag of more than $2 trillion in the coming decades, according to a recent watchdog report by the Government Accountability Office.

The fighter jet was conceived to play a critical role in the Pentagon’s ability to meet current and future national security goals. The F-35 reached an important milestone in March known as “full rate production” — the point when development reaches a level of performance and reliability allowing faster manufacturing. The cutting-edge fighter planes have been built at a near-full rate for the past several years, officials said.

“However, contractors continue to deliver engines and aircraft late — a trend that has worsened in the last few years,” GAO investigators said in their May 16 report. “The program also faces delays in updating the aircraft’s software and has been slow to modernize the engine and other aircraft components.”

Lockheed Martin is the prime F-35 contractor, with Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems its principal partners. Pratt & Whitney is the prime contractor for the engine. The fighter jet has three main variants — the F-35A, a conventional takeoff and landing model; the F-35B, a short takeoff and vertical-landing model; and the aircraft carrier-based F-35C.

The Defense Department has undertaken a number of belt-tightening efforts over the past decade to reduce the cost of the program, such as improving the reliability and maintenance of parts on the aircraft. Defense Department officials told the GAO that its initiatives have reduced sustainment costs by almost $85 billion over the lifetime of the program.

“The Air Force and Navy have also reduced their projected annual flying times by 19% and 45% respectively,” the GAO said. “In part because of this reduction in flying, the services are now projecting they will meet most of their affordability targets.”

“Affordability targets” are the amount of money a service can project it can afford to spend to operate an aircraft for a year, the GAO said.

The Defense Department is in the sixth year of a hardware and software modernization effort for the F-35, a program known as Block 4. But suppliers have faced setbacks, including supply chain and software issues. The GAO said the F-35 program and contractor are resolving the problems.

“The program made some progress in its recent efforts to modernize the engine and other subsystems but has not awarded a development contract,” the GAO said.

The GAO said it provided a draft copy of the study to the Defense Department. Pentagon officials provided them with technical comments which they incorporated into the report “as appropriate.”