Taxpayers could have saved $2 billion

 

Although POGO has been warning of the excessive costs and issues with the F-35 program for years, Pentagon watchers were surprised when the president released his budget, and it showed the services would be requesting 61 new F-35s instead of the expected 94. The reduced F-35 purchase is good news for everyone concerned about out-of-control government spending. However, in our latest analysis, we discuss how these cuts, if they’d been made sooner, could have saved taxpayers nearly $2 billion. In 2020, the Government Accountability Office reported that retrofitting design upgrades for the F-35 program would cost an estimated $1.4 billion. At that time, approximately 550 F-35s had been purchased, which means that the estimated cost to upgrade each aircraft is $2.5 million. Since that report, more than 200 F-35s have been produced, resulting in costs nearing $2 billion, based on the Pentagon’s most recent estimated cost figures. That is just one of the problems now coming to a head for the F-35 program. Read the full analysis for more. It should be common sense that purchasing large numbers of aircraft before the design work is completed will add unnecessary costs. But apparently, the power brokers in the military-industrial-congressional complex need to learn these lessons the hard way. Thanks for reading, Dan Grazier Senior Defense Policy Fellow Project On Government Oversight Contribute

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