Cost of Sustaining Lockheed’s F-35 Jet Now Forecast to Exceed $1.5 T

• Operating, maintenance costs 44% higher than 2018 projection
• Audit says mission readiness declines as demand for jet soars

 

The world’s costliest weapons program, Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 fighter jet, is getting even more expensive, according to a government watchdog.

Nine years after the Marine Corps declared its first F-35s operational, the Pentagon now projects that the cost of operating and maintaining the jet through 2088 will be $1.58 trillion, 44% higher than originally forecast in 2018, the Government Accountability Office said Monday in a new assessment.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-15/cost-of-sustaining-lockheed-s-f-35-jet-now-forecast-to-exceed-1-5-trillion