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F-35s Continue to Have Problems, Acquisition Costs Increase

posted by Fnord666 on Monday January 29 2018, @01:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the flying-money-pit dept.

takyon writes:

Testing Director says the expensive F-35s are not combat-ready, unreliable, and components need redesign

Overall fleet-wide monthly availability rates remain around 50 percent, a condition that has existed with no significant improvement since October 2014, despite the increasing number of new aircraft. One notable trend is an increase in the percentage of the fleet that cannot fly while awaiting replacement parts – indicated by the Not Mission Capable due to Supply rate.

[...] Total acquisition costs for Lockheed Martin Corp.'s next-generation fighter may rise about 7 percent to $406.5 billion, according to figures in a document known as a Selected Acquisition Report. That's a reversal after several years of estimates that had declined to $379 billion recently from a previous high of $398.5 billion in early 2014.

$122 billion has been spent on the F35 program up until the end of 2017. $10-15 billion will be spent each year through 2022. This is detailed in a 100 page F-35 spending summary report.

FY17 DOD PROGRAMS: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)

Related: The F-35 Fighter Plane Is Even More of a Mess Than You Thought
The F-35: A Gold-Plated Turkey
Flawed and Potentially Deadly F-35 Fighters Won't be Ready Before 2019
Lockheed Martin Negotiating $37 Billion F-35 Deal
Does China's J-20 Rival Other Stealth Fighters?

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  • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday January 29 2018, @09:03PM (1 child)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday January 29 2018, @09:03PM (#630022) Homepage Journal

    I do hear that it's not very good. I'm hearing that our existing planes are better. And one of the pilots came out of the plane, one of the test pilots, and said this isn't as good as what we already have. And to spend billions and billions of dollars on something that maybe isn't as good?

    They're saying it doesn't perform as well as our existing equipment, which is much less expensive. So when I hear that, immediately I say we have to do something, because you know, they're spending billions. This is a plane, there's never been anything like it in terms of cost. And how about, you know, we're retooling with planes that aren't as good as the ones we have, and the test pilots are amazing people. They know better than anybody, okay, and I think you would accept that.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Monday January 29 2018, @11:16PM

    by Bot (3902) on Monday January 29 2018, @11:16PM (#630085) Journal

    You forgot to blame Obama... and Bush.

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    Account abandoned.