By Ken Pole | April 25, 2017 Estimated reading time 2 minutes, 26 seconds.
U.S. Congress was told April 24 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that the Department of Defense (DOD) shouldn’t commit any more money to developing “future capabilities” of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II before resolving issues with the baseline aircraft.
At nearly $400 billion so far–with projected lifetime costs of more than $1 trillion–the F-35 is the most costly and ambitious acquisition in DOD history. The program has been restructured three times between 2003 and 2012, with the DOD continually increasing cost estimates and extending deadlines.
The former Conservative government in Ottawa preferred the F-35 as a replacement for the Royal Canadian Air Force’s fleet of Boeing CF-188 Hornets, but its Liberal successor favours “an open and transparent competition” among “the many lower-priced options that better match Canada’s defence needs.” It says the “primary mission of our fighter aircraft should remain the defence of North America, not stealth first-strike capability.”
The GAO pointed out in its report that the DOD has “for years . . . reported on the F-35 program’s cost and schedule overruns, knowledge gaps, and performance issues.” While it had taken “a number of steps to address these issues, the department continues to struggle to keep the development costs for the baseline aircraft in check.”
Noting that the program is approaching the end of development and as Lockheed Martin begins increasing production “significantly” over the next few years, peaking in 2022, the DOD would need to top up its procurement budget by an annual average of $12 billion through 2038 to acquire 2,457 aircraft. Meanwhile, it would be funding two other major acquisitions, the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider bomber and the Boeing KC-46A Pegasus tanker.
