Introduction
Here are some raw numbers about the costliest military program in U.S. history: the F-35 jet fighter. Three different versions of the plane are being developed, and a total of 2,457 copies are to be manufactured by 2035.
4 million | Number of lines of software code in the F/A-18 jet fighter |
24 million | Number of lines of software code in the F-35 |
37% | Growth in critical software code since 2005 |
$15 billion | How much the F-35’s estimated costs have increased over the past twenty months alone |
$119 billion | How much the F-35’s estimated costs have increased over the past five years |
$345 billion | The total Pentagon budget in 2002 |
$400 billion | The estimated cost of buying the F-35’s |
$1 trillion | The projected cost to operate the F-35s over their projected flight times of 8,000 hours each |
$15.8 million | The amount paid by Lockheed Martin on March 23 to settle a Justice Department claim that it “recklessly” secured Pentagon payments for inflated charges by a subcontractor on the F-35 program and another jet fighter program |
$80 million | Cost of helmet now being produced as a backup to the problem plagued main F-35 helmet |
$373 million | Retrofit costs incurred by the government so far to repair newly-produced F-35 planes |
5 years | Delay so far in starting full-rate production |
11 years | How long the program has been under way |
4% | “Mission system requirements” fulfilled so far |
21% | Planned flight test points completed so far |
30% | Planned airplanes actually delivered last year |
40% | Problems in Marine Corps version of the F-35 that were fixed when Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta lifted its “probation” this year |
54% | 2011 aircraft performance goals that were achieved |
75% | Increase in estimated cost of F-35 engines since 2001 |
75% | Reduction since 2002 in the number of planes expected to be completed by 2017 |
100% | Growth in estimated average acquisition cost of each plane since 2001 |
General Accountability Office, “Joint Strike Fighter,” March 20, 2012; Department of Defense, “Selected Acquisition Report, F-35,” Dec. 31, 2010.
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