Lockheed Martin’s JSF program manager Tom Burbage told media correspondents in Canberra on August 9 that the current fly-away price of the first 14 Australian JSF’s would average out at $65 million and that at $3.2 billion for the planes and support facilities they represented excellent value.
According to the Canberra Times he noted that the 24 F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets currently being acquired from Boeing cost roughly the same and did not have the same capability.
Mr Burbage said claims that it will cost a trillion dollars to maintain the JSF over its lifetime were incorrect, pointing out that if similar costings were applied to the current US fighter fleet, the total would come to $4 trillion over the same period.