F-35′s per-hour expense may be $31,000, estimate says
Navy’s flight costs could balloon with strike fighter
F-35′s per-hour expense may be $31,000, estimate says
Friday, Jan. 29, 2010 By JAY FRIESS, Staff writer, SoMdNews.com
A leaked presentation of the Navy’s projected costs for operating the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, now being tested at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, has touched off Beltway speculation that the Navy may scale back or delay its adoption schedule for the plane.
According to the presentation, as reported by Congress Daily, Navy Times, Inside Defense, and other defense publications, the jet fighter could cost the Navy $31,000 per hour to fly, $12,000 more than the F/A-18 Super Hornets and AV-8A Harriers it will replace.
In a statement Wednesday, Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for acquisitions, explained that the presentation reported in the media was a “total ownership cost” exercise, designed to keep tabs on the JSF program and spur cost-cutting measures before costs spiral out of control.
“As is the case with all major programs, the opportunity to improve on total ownership costs decreases with program maturity,” Stackley wrote. “Our experience with legacy aircraft points to the criticality of properly addressing [those costs] on the front end of a program or be confronted with unanticipated maintainability and obsolescence issues on the back end as the aircraft age.”
This alleged 38 percent hike in operating costs is causing Pentagon officials to rethink the pace of JSF testing and production. By the military’s own estimate, published last year, the JSF program is already two years behind schedule.
Lockheed Martin has been producing the plane even as the Air Force and Marine Corps are just beginning to test their respective versions, trying to accelerate the military’s adoption process.
The Pentagon is hoping to have the Marine F-35B jump jet variant ready by 2012, the Air Force F-35A by 2013 and the Navy F-35C by 2014.
Last week, Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Force chief of staff, stated at a press conference that the JSF program timeline was still “too optimistic,” noting that the Air Force could only complete 16 of the 169 test flights planned last year.
He said the Air Force is moving to “reduce concurrency” of testing and production, giving testers more time to shake problems out of the aircraft.
Media outlets have reported that the Pentagon’s proposed budget, scheduled for release Feb. 1, will call for $2.8 billion of funds previously set aside for purchasing new aircraft to instead be used to continue JSF development.
Both the JSF planes currently stationed at Pax River are F-35Bs, built for the Marine Corps and capable of short takeoff, vertical landing and midair hovering. Tests on the planes resumed this month after a month-long equipment change hiatus.
Lockheed said the Navy’s F-35C carrier-based variant is currently undergoing fuel testing and should be ready to fly by the second quarter of this year. Once Lockheed is done flight testing the plane, it too will be delivered to Pax River for Navy testing. The base is expecting five F-35Bs and three F-35Cs.
Recent Comments