GAO Issues 3rd Report on F-35 Program, Sees Serious Risks Along With Progress

Takeoff: F-35, or costs?(click to view full) The US Government Accountability Office releases its latest report covering the F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter program. They offered their assessment and made their recommendations, but the USAF agreed to disagree and will continue as planned. GAO writes: “The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program — a multinational acquisition program for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and eight cooperative international partners — is the Department of Defense’s (DOD) most expensive aircraft acquisition program. DOD currently estimates it will spend $623 billion to develop, procure, and operate and support the JSF fleet. The JSF aircraft, which includes a variant design for each of the services, represents 90 percent of the remaining planned investment for DOD’s major tactical aircraft programs. In fiscal year 2004, the JSF program was rebaselined to address technical challenges, cost increases, and schedule overruns… Total JSF program acquisition costs (through 2027) have increased by $31.6 billion and now DOD will pay 12 percent more per aircraft than expected in 2004. The program has also experienced delays in several key events, including the start of the flight test program, delivery of the first production representative development aircraft, […]