JSFs could cost $388bn: Pentagon report - Australian Defence Magazine

The US Defense Department is warning Congress that the price tag for the Joint Strike Fighter program could rise as high as $US388 billion by this (northern) summer, a recalibration that could raise fundamental questions about the affordability of the Pentagon's plans to buy 2,443 of the Lockheed Martin-built aircraft.

In a previously undisclosed report, the Pentagon has advised lawmakers that a new, statutorily mandated, independent cost estimate of the F-35 program, which formally began last week, could propel F-35 costs from $133.5 million per plane - a new high - to as much as $US158.1 million, according to DoD sources and figures provided in the 53-page report on JSF sent to Congress on 1 April.

The department expects this analysis will result in increases of as much as 18.4 per cent - or $US60.4 billion - to the current $US328.2 billion JSF program cost estimate, according to figures in the report.

Such a change would mark $US90 billion in cost growth since 2008.

InsideDefense.com obtained a copy of the report.