Joint Strike Fighter total cost still up in the air.

AuthorParsons, Dan

* The Air Force general in charge of bailing out development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is in agreement with Lockheed Martin that the mistakes of the past are behind them and the first operational jets will be available on time and on budget in 2015.

But the Pentagon inspector general recently published a report that was familiar to those who have followed the long saga of designing and building a fifth-generation fighter. Juxtaposing the optimistic rhetoric from Lockheed and Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, F-35 program executive officer, the IG found hundreds of incidents of mismanagement and lax oversight by the government that underscore continued ambiguity over how much more money the jet will consume.

No one can agree on how much the jet will have cost U.S. taxpayers--not to mention a coalition of international partners--after the F-35 enters service. Bogdan's office insists the price over the 50-year lifecycle of the aircraft sits at $857 billion and is slowly falling as cost is driven from all aspects of development, operation and sustainment.

Bogdan said there is "no more time and no more money" for developmental delays of the jets. Everyone involved must make cost-reduction a priority or sacrifice future capabilities to pay the bills.

"By 2019, I'm looking for a fifth-generation airplane for a fourth-generation price," Bogdan said. "If we can do that, I can guarantee our partners and the services will be happy campers."

Lockheed, Pratt & Whitney, BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman--the four prime contractors involved with F-35 development--have given the Air Force assurances "at the CEO-level" that the F-35 will eventually be comparable in price to the aircraft they will replace, he said.

Frank Kendall, under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in late September that the official government estimate still rests at more than $1 trillion.

"That's the big rhinoceros," Bogdan said of the $1.1 trillion estimate at the Air Force Association's annual conference in September. "That is the number that has been hanging around for three years now. That cost estimate has not changed for three years because they haven't done a cost estimate in three years."

"No matter what that number is, we know if we don't start to drive cost out of the life cycle of this airplane, it may not be affordable in the future for all of our partners or all of the U.S. [military services]," he added.

Still, the Pentagon IG found 719...

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