{"id":17128,"date":"2016-03-25T15:10:33","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T15:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2016\/03\/25\/f-35-acquisition-cost-drops-but-operating-costs-rise-with-life-extension\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:31:15","slug":"f-35-acquisition-cost-drops-but-operating-costs-rise-with-life-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2016\/03\/25\/f-35-acquisition-cost-drops-but-operating-costs-rise-with-life-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"F-35 Acquisition Cost Drops, But Operating Costs Rise With Life Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2013 The cost to procure the F-35 joint strike fighter has dropped, but the total price to operate and support the fleet over its lifetime has risen \u2013 not because of problems with the program, but because the services decided <\/span>plan to fly the fifth-generation fighter jet for six additional <\/span>more years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news for the program is the 2015 Selected Acquisition Report (SAR)\u00a0shows the F-35 total acquisition cost decreased from $391 billion in 2014 to $379 billion in “then-year” dollars, or when adjusted for inflation. This is a drop of $12.1 billion, according to a Pentagon-issued\u00a0summary of the report sent out by the Pentagon<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not counting inflation, this translates into a roughly $7 billion billion <\/span>drop in base-year 2012 dollars, F-35 joint program office chief Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan told reporters March 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SAR reflects the program’s total acquisition cost in then-year dollars to show what the actual cost will be in the out-years. The JPO generally uses base-year 2012 dollars in order to compare apples to apples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the SAR\u2019s estimate for the cost to operate and support the F-35\u2019s over its service life has increased by\u00a0<\/span>$107.3 billion in then-year dollars. The 2014 estimate for the 55 years of expected F-35 service to 2064 was $1,016.5 billion, or just over<\/span> $1.017 trillion; the now 60-year estimate to keep F-35s flying until 2070 is $1123.8 billion <\/span>$1.124 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This cost increase is a direct result of the services’ decision to extend the life of the fleet by six years, or 1.6 million flight hours, Bogdan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The extension translated into a$45 billion in base-year dollars in operating and support (O&S) costs to the 2015 estimate, masking a 2 to 4 percent drop \u2013 depending on the variant \u2013\u00a0in the real O&S costs of flying the airplane, Bogdan stressed.\u00a0Without this extension, F-35 life cycle O&S costs would have decreased by about $22 billion\u00a0from the 2014 estimate, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The extension translated into $45 billion increase (in base-year dollars) for operating and support (O&S)\u00a0costs in the 2015 estimate. But according to Bogdan, the\u00a0real O&S\u00a0costs of flying the airplane saw a\u00a02 to 4 percent drop,\u00a0depending on the variant.\u00a0Without this extension, F-35 life cycle O&S costs would have decreased by about $22 billion\u00a0from the 2014 estimate, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The JPO has no control over the beddown assumptions that the services make. What the JPO can control is the real O&S\u00a0costs of this airplane and if you read the SAR the real O&S\u00a0costs and cost per flying hour went down 2 to 4\u00a0percent just this year alone between 2014 and 2015,” Bogdan said. “So\u00a0to characterize that, ‘it is a trillion dollars with money on top,’ misses the point that the thing that we’re really trying to control today in 2016 is the O&S\u00a0cost of flying real airplanes, not how long an airplane may last in 2070.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The latest SAR also shows an increase of about $300 million in base-year dollars for research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E), Bogdan said. However, this increase does not reflect “real” RDT&E costs, rather it shows the JPO’s transfer of funds from the procurement account to the RDT&E account to “more appropriately” fund operational test aircraft modifications, Bogdan said. This had “zero net impact” on program costs since there was a corresponding decrease in procurement funds captured in the SAR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real RDT&E costs held steady from 2014 to 2015, he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bogdan also touted savings in per-unit costs. Compared to the 2014 SAR, the cost of an Air Force F-35A variant dropped $1.8 million in base-year dollars per jet; m<\/span>Meanwhile the Marine Corps F-35B and Navy F-35C dropped by about $1 million per jet, Bogdan said. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The F-35 program continues to see cost reduction due to increasing quantities and improving manufacturing costs, Bogdan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aircraft alone decreased by $5.7 billion, or 1.8 percent, from $324.1 billion to $318.4 billion, according to the SAR. The Pratt & Whitney F135 engine that powers the F-35 decreased $6.4 billion, or 9.5 percent, from $67 billion to $60.6 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We had real decreases in real costs this year,” Bogan told reporters March 24 at the Pentagon. “For a program that has had a tragic past that is not a bad report card from ’14 to ’15.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email:\u00a0lseligman@defensenews.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twitter:\u00a0@laraseligman<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 The cost to procure the F-35 joint strike fighter has dropped, but the total price to operate and support the fleet over its lifetime has risen \u2013 not because of problems with the program, but because the services decided to fly the fifth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1820],"class_list":["post-17128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"33BAXKQ4AVCXLMZLUWS5WDGRGQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2016\/03\/25\/f-35-acquisition-cost-drops-but-operating-costs-rise-with-life-extension\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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