Air Force May Have to Slash Its F-35 Order

The U.S. Air Force plans to order 1,763 F-35 Lightning II jets from Lockheed Martin, but rapidly increasing operating costs could reduce that number significantly. According to an internal analysis obtained by Bloomberg, the Pentagon says it has stabilized the initial purchase price for the F-35, now estimated to total $406 billion for a combined 2,456 jets for the Air Force, Navy and Marines. According to the internal analysis, operations and support costs are rising as flight hours for the F-35 increase, but the Air Force has “very limited visibility into how” those funds are being spent by Lockheed.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/2E3CH0e