rockstarIN
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Lockheed Martins F-35 Joint Strike Fighter early-production models overshot their cost targets by a combined total of $771 million, U.S. Senator John McCain said on Tuesday.
Outrageous! the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said in a tweet. The Pentagon is seeking $264 million in reprogrammed funding as a kind of downpayment on the overrun, he wrote, adding: Disgraceful.
Lockheed is developing three F-35 versions for the United States and eight international partners at a projected cost of more than $382 billion for 2,443 aircraft over the next two decades. It is the most expensive U.S. arms purchase.
The Pentagons F-35 Joint Program Office previously had said total costs on the first three production batches overshot their contractual targets by 11 to 15 percent. These cost-plus deals required the government to pay most of an overrun.
The tweet from McCain, who has spearheaded opposition to what he regards as wasteful arms programs, was the first public disclosure of the overruns dollar figure. The program office reported the sum to the Senate Armed Services Committee staff on Monday, a McCain aide said. He said it applied to the first 28 jets.
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awx/2011/07/13/awx_07_13_2011_p0-347275.xml&headline=Lockheed%20Overruns%20$771%20Mln%20On%20Early%20F-35s
Outrageous! the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said in a tweet. The Pentagon is seeking $264 million in reprogrammed funding as a kind of downpayment on the overrun, he wrote, adding: Disgraceful.
Lockheed is developing three F-35 versions for the United States and eight international partners at a projected cost of more than $382 billion for 2,443 aircraft over the next two decades. It is the most expensive U.S. arms purchase.
The Pentagons F-35 Joint Program Office previously had said total costs on the first three production batches overshot their contractual targets by 11 to 15 percent. These cost-plus deals required the government to pay most of an overrun.
The tweet from McCain, who has spearheaded opposition to what he regards as wasteful arms programs, was the first public disclosure of the overruns dollar figure. The program office reported the sum to the Senate Armed Services Committee staff on Monday, a McCain aide said. He said it applied to the first 28 jets.
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awx/2011/07/13/awx_07_13_2011_p0-347275.xml&headline=Lockheed%20Overruns%20$771%20Mln%20On%20Early%20F-35s
. But there is something called as over stretching the economy. Disbanding the F-35's is hardly gonna leave you defenceless. US jets are still among the best. It's more of an ego battle to say my jet is a generation ahead of others out there. It's a legacy of the cold war way of thinking.
