Lockheed's Costly F-35 to Be Billions Costlier, Pentagon Finds

By Anthony Capaccio
April 22, 2019, 12:28 PM EDT Updated on April 22, 2019, 2:43 PM EDT

▶ Research and procurement increases by $22 billion: cost office
▶ Six decades of operations and support grows by $73 billion

Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 jet, the world’s costliest weapons program, just got even costlier.

The estimated total price for research and procurement has increased by $22 billion in current dollars adjusted for inflation, according to the Pentagon’s latest annual cost assessment of major projects. The estimate for operating and supporting the fleet of fighters over more than six decades grew by almost $73 billion to $1.196 trillion.

The increase to $428.4 billion from $406.2 billion in acquisition costs, about a 5.5 percent increase, isn’t due to poor performance, delays or excessive costs for labor or materials, according to the Defense Department’s latest Selected Acquisition Report sent to Congress last week and obtained by Bloomberg News.

Instead, the increase reflects for the first time the current cost estimates for a major set of upgrades planned in coming “Block 4” modifications, according to the report.

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