Monday, May 27, 2013

Smoke and mirrors

Defense-Aerospace.com has a different view on the recent F-35 SAR claim of a $4.4 billion drop in the program’s cost.

While the eye-catching conclusion of the Pentagon’s latest report is that the F-35’s cost has declined for the first time, a closer look shows that the decline is tenuous, and not as clear as it could appear.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

From the just released SAR, this budget data:

APUC (Aircraft Unit Cost-not including R&D)

F-35A model, airframe & systems......1763 units @ $170,815M total prm cost = $96.9M ea
F-135 engine .......1763 units @ $27,118M total pgm cost = $15.4M ea
Total Flyaway cost = $112.3M ea

But this cost is only valid if all 3000 or so planned aircraft are
actually built........and we know that isn't going to happen.

In light of the above, I don't understand this higher JPO math. MG Bogdan recently said that the A model cost , incl aircraft, engine, and systems, is down slightly to $76.8M ea. I'm missing something big here.
Can someone explain this $35.5M cost discrepancy?