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In early September, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report bluntly titled “F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Actions Needed to Address Late Deliveries and Improve Future Development.” The report declared the F-35 Lightning II’s Block 4 upgrade costs were “over $6 billion more [than anticipated] and completion is at least five years later than original estimates.”
Elvis Presley had the GI Blues – a good but schmaltzy Hollywood flick from 1960. Now for the real defense blues. The Lockheed Martin F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighter, long plagued with cost overruns, various technology mishaps, and software glitches, has encountered another batch of upgrade inadequacies with expensive and time-consuming fixes – and the actual and potential damage to U.S. defense capabilities is very real.
The GAO also chastised Pratt & Whitney for the late delivery of jet engines. The F-35 needs engines to fly, obviously.
Here is one of several killer statistics: “…in 2024, Lockheed delivered 110 aircraft. All were late by an average of 238 days, up from 61 days in 2023.”
A day late and a dollar short – GI lingo for the infantry platoon’s chronic foul-up. In 2024, Lockheed Martin was eight months late and how many billions in the red?
The GAO’s report had several “drill sergeant in your face” moments – DI moments. It pointed out that Lockheed Martin has repeatedly received hundreds of millions of dollars in incentive fees to ensure on-time delivery of aircraft and key “technology refresh” upgrades. Incentive fees paid – but the delivery is still late.
In its recommendations, the GAO strongly urged the Department of Defense (DoD) – okay, Department of War, DoW – to review its entire incentive pay structure, given the contractors’ (Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney) failure to make on-time product and upgrade deliveries.
DI recommendation: Give ’em 50 push-ups and demand they repay the incentive cash.
An effective high-tech F-35 fighter really matters. The USAF, USN, and all U.S. allies flying the F-35 agree with the GAO’s description of the aircraft’s mission and advertised capabilities: “The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a family of fifth-generation strike fighter aircraft that integrates low-observable (stealth) technology with advanced sensors and computer networking capabilities. DoD uses the F-35 to perform a wide range of missions, and it is vital to the success of U.S. combat operations and homeland defense.”
When they work, F-35s are superb. Israel’s modified F-35s helped penetrate and destroy Iranian air and space defenses. Ultimately, the Pentagon intends to buy 2,470 F-35s (A, B, and C models) for the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy (respectively) and sustain them for a 77-year life cycle. (That’s the published lifecycle figure. If achieved, the F-35 would challenge the B-52 for service longevity.) The GAO report noted, however, that as of March 2024, the development program was a decade delayed and about $250 billion over the original budget estimate.
The program’s 2001 baseline cost was $233 billion. In 2012, it grew to $396 billion. The 2023 cost estimate: $485 billion. Do the math. That’s $252 billion over the original estimate.
Sadly, the GAO discovered the manufacturers have failed to meet “minimum viable product” standards that satisfy “the warfighters’ highest priority needs first.”
What is to be done? The Department of Defense must win the Beltway War – which means defeating big business manufacturers who are more interested in maintaining their income stream than producing war-winning weapons and materiel on budget and on time. That means getting Congress to penalize the corporations for production delays, cost overruns, and faulty technology, which means congressional representatives and senators will have to offend the manufacturers’ lobbyists. A mission impossible? To quote Pogo, we have met the enemy, and he is us.