VA: F-35 jet fighter costs are soaring out of sight, reports say

July 12, 2012

VA: F-35 jet fighter costs are soaring out of sight, reports say

The Government Accountability Office estimates the project is running 42 percent over budget. The GAO figures the F-35 program will cost $395.7 billion, “an increase of $117.2 billion from the prior 2007 baseline.”

But the Project on Government Oversight, a defense watchdog group, says GAO badly underestimated the costs by using the wrong baseline year for its calculations.

“The cost documentation of the F-35 program started in 2001, not 2007,” says Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project and Center for Defense Information at POGO.

Read the full article, "VA: F-35 jet fighter costs are soaring out of sight," By Kenric Ward, VirginiaWatchdog.org, July 12, 2012.

Tags: F-35

Winslow Wheeler, Director, Straus Military Reform Project, Center for Defense Information at the Project On Government Oversight

By: Winslow Wheeler
Director, Straus Military Reform Project, CDI at POGO, POGO

Mr. Wheeler's areas of expertise include Congress, the Defense Budget, National Security, Pentagon Reform and Weapons Systems

The goal of the Straus Military Reform Project is to secure far more effective military forces and much more ethical and professional military and civilian leadership at significantly lower budget levels.

We would like to thank Philip A. Straus Jr. and family for their generous support.