Cost of Sustaining Lockheed’s F-35 Jet Now Forecast to Exceed $1.5 Trillion
- Operating, maintenance costs 44% higher than 2018 projection
- Audit says mission readiness declines as demand for jet soars
The world’s costliest weapons program, Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 fighter jet, is getting even more expensive, according to a government watchdog.
Nine years after the Marine Corps declared its first F-35s operational, the Pentagon now projects that the cost of operating and maintaining the jet through 2088 will be $1.58 trillion, 44% higher than originally forecast in 2018, the Government Accountability Office said Monday in a new assessment.