{"id":59631,"date":"2019-05-02T21:02:57","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T21:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/05\/02\/one-of-the-f-35s-cost-goals-may-be-unattainable\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:13:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:13:46","slug":"one-of-the-f-35s-cost-goals-may-be-unattainable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2019\/05\/02\/one-of-the-f-35s-cost-goals-may-be-unattainable\/","title":{"rendered":"One of the F-35\u2032s cost goals may be unattainable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2019\/03\/22\/industrial-base-considerations-played-role-in-f-15x-decision\/\" target=\"_blank\">Pentagon\u2019s cost assessment office<\/a> doesn\u2019t believe the F-35 program office can achieve a \u201cstretch goal\u201d of getting the &#8220;A&#8221; model\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2019\/04\/25\/government-watchdog-finds-more-problems-with-f-35s-spare-parts-pipeline\/\" target=\"_blank\">cost per flying hour to $25,000<\/a> by fiscal 2025,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2019\/04\/30\/daigle-to-exit-as-cape-head-leaving-another-pentagon-vacancy\/\" target=\"_blank\"> its director said Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe department doesn\u2019t see a path to get to $25,000 dollars per flying hour by FY25,\u201d said Robert Daigle, the outgoing head of the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, during a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing. \u201cThere are a fair number of studies going on right now that are going to provide some more information on that, but that\u2019s a target and it\u2019s not our projection for where we\u2019re actually going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/navy-league\/2019\/05\/01\/shanahan-super-hornet-on-track-to-meet-readiness-goals-but-f-16s-and-f-22s-still-struggling\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Super-Hornet-19.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Shanahan: Super Hornet on track to meet readiness goals, but F-16s and F-22s still struggling<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The 80 percent mission-capable rate goal is proving difficult to achieve.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both CAPE and the F-35 Joint Program Office arrived at similar projections for the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant\u2019s cost per flying hour in FY24, with CAPE estimating $36,000 per hour and the JPO pegging costs at $34,000 per hour, said Daigle, who is stepping down later this month. (The two organizations did not provide an estimate for FY25, which is outside of the regular five-year budget cycle.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Either figure would be an improvement from the FY18 rate, in which one hour of flight time in the &#8220;A&#8221; model cost about $44,000. However, the oldest F-35s will begin to move into long-term depot maintenance in the mid 2020s, causing a moderate rise in price during the later portion of the decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAfter 2024, projections are that the cost per flight hour are going to flatten out and then increase a little bit because the planes are starting to age where you\u2019re going to have to start bringing them back to the depot,\u201d Daigle said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The JPO has identified steps that it can take to boost reliability, decrease the spare parts shortage and increase the ease of maintaining the F-35, Vice Adm. Mat Winter, the F-35 program executive, told reporters after the hearing. Those factors make him confident the office can meet the FY24 projection of $34,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2019\/02\/27\/how-the-us-air-forces-kessel-run-team-plans-to-solve-one-of-the-f-35-programs-biggest-headaches\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5099416.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">How the US Air Force\u2019s Kessel Run team plans to solve one of the F-35 program\u2019s biggest headaches<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The F-35&#039;s 1990s-era logistics backbone is getting a facelift.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, reaching $25,000 by FY25 is more of a \u201cstretch goal,\u201d he said. \u201cThat will be very, very hard to meet. But it\u2019s FY19 right now, and we have a number of years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the government and Lockheed Martin confident that the unit costs of the F-35A will fall to $80 million by FY20, the Pentagon has turned its eye to lowering the costs of operating and maintaining the F-35. The latest Defense Department acquisition figures \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2019-04-22\/lockheed-s-costly-f-35-to-be-billions-costlier-pentagon-finds\" target=_blank>obtained last month by Bloomberg News <\/a>\u2014 peg O&amp;M costs at $1.196 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During Thursday\u2019s hearing, Air Force and Defense Department officials used ongoing concerns about F-35 sustainability as a critical argument in favor of purchasing Boeing\u2019s F-15EX fighter jet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rep. Donald Norcross, the New Jersey Democrat who chairs HASC\u2019s Tactical Air and Land Subcommittee, asked what, if anything, Congress could do so the Air Force <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/air-warfare-symposium\/2019\/02\/27\/congressional-supporters-stand-ready-to-protect-f-35-from-f-15x-budget-threats\/\" target=_blank>can buy more F-35s instead of the F-15EX<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Air Combat Command head Gen. Mike Holmes acknowledged that the price of the F-35 aircraft is falling, but expressed concern that the service would be able to buy and sustain the systems associated with the jet, like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2019\/03\/08\/key-piece-of-f-35-logistics-system-unusable-by-us-air-force-students-instructor-pilots\/\" target=\"_blank\">simulators <\/a>and its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2019\/02\/01\/bad-data-in-f-35-logistics-system-resulting-in-lost-missions\/\" target=\"_blank\">logistics platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRight now the air vehicle is out ahead of those other elements,\u201d he said. \u201cProducing more elements would be one part of it, but keeping up in all of those other areas \u2014 to me \u2014 would be the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Winter added that while the material needed to manufacture each plane is decreasing, the supply chain is struggling to get parts to Lockheed\u2019s production line on time \u2014 which increases labor costs because the aircraft can\u2019t move as quickly through the production process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m hitting a stagnant plateau with Lockheed Martin because they are 600 parts behind on average: 600 parts not on the production line when I need them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The shortage of spare parts also extends to the services\u2019 operational jets, which are competing for the same supply of components as a new production aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat supplier that generates a widget is generating a new widget for the production line, for our spare package, and we still have to repair the ones that are breaking in the field,\u201d Winter said. In addition, the reliability of parts is still not meeting expectations, and it\u2019s taking too long to move them through depot, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement, a Lockheed spokesman said the company continues to see a path to reach the $25,000 goal by FY25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve reduced the Lockheed Martin-portion of F-35 CPFH [cost per flying hour] by about 15 percent since 2015. Lockheed Martin represents less than half of total O&amp;S [operations and sustainment] costs, and we are partnering with our customers to further reduce costs across the enterprise to meet these joint goals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Defense Department&#8217;s goal to get F-35 cost per flight hours down to $25,000 by fiscal 2025 may be overly ambitious, officials 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