American F-35 fighters have risen in price by almost one and a half times in five years
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The US Government Accountability Office published report about the most expensive weapons program in the world – the F-35 Lightning II fighter jets of the American concern Lockheed Martin. The federal agency estimates that the cost of operating and maintaining the F-35 through the end of the program (2088) will be $1.58 trillion. This is 44% higher than the Pentagon’s estimate given in 2018. Then the defense department announced the need to spend about $1.1 trillion on the F-35 over the same period.
The US Department of Defense currently operates about 630 F-35 fighter jets. By the mid-2040s, the Pentagon intends to purchase almost 2.5 thousand fighters of this model from Lockheed Martin.
At the same time, as the Accounts Chamber notes, despite the significant increase in costs, the operational performance of the F-35 is only falling over time. Thus, the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps now believe that they will be able to fly fewer F-35 missions per year than originally expected. Again – because of money. The Department of Defense currently estimates that the Air Force will pay $6.6 million annually to operate and maintain a single aircraft. “This remains well above the original goal of $4.1 million,” the report said.
Over the past five years, the overall availability of the F-35 fleet has declined significantly, and none of the aircraft variants (such as the F-35A, F-35B and F-35C) are meeting their availability goals, the Government Accountability Office noted.
As of December, all three branches of the US military that fly the jet reported that their F-35s were not sufficiently ready for combat missions. Only 52% of the Air Force’s F-35A fighters were deemed partially mission-capable, below the 80% target. For the Navy, the rate was 62%, compared to a target of 75%. The Marine Corps reported similar numbers.
On Tuesday, Pentagon officials will report to the House Armed Services Committee on what the defense department has achieved to improve the readiness of the F-35 program. Last March, the Pentagon promised to increase overall fighter readiness levels by 10% by March 2024, from 54% to 64%.
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