Redesign and modification costs in the development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will remain “elevated” into 2019, the first year the Lockheed Martin [LMT]-built fighter jet is scheduled to go into full production, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report yesterday.
The design and manufacturing changes on the aircraft will continue to add to the re-development costs–known as concurrency costs–which, resulting from testing, are already at least $373 million on production aircraft, the GAO report said.
“The manufacturing process is still absorbing higher than expected number of engineering changes resulting from flight testing, changes which are expected to persist at elevated levels into 2019, making it difficult to achieve efficient production rates,” the GAO said.
The GAO also said the Defense Department has not adequately addressed the effect restructuring the program could have on scheduling and costs if future years funding requirements are not met. The first four limited production runs on the aircraft resulted in cost overruns of more than $1 billion, GAO said.
The Joint Strike Fighter program is the largest in the Pentagon’s history. It calls for the procurement of 2,443 F-35 for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps at an estimated cost of $395 billion–about $117 billion from the expected cost five years ago. The program has been a key target for congressional criticism.
Earlier this year, the Defense Department restricted the program for the third time, deferring the purchase of 179 planes over the next five years for an anticipated $15 billion in savings.
Vice Adm. David Venlet, the Pentagon’s JSF program executive officer, predicted in March that concurrency costs would stabilize and start dropping off by 2015 (Defense Daily, March 12).
“Concurrency is very real in the program at this time…,” he said. “It will persist probably to the beginning of 2015 and then it will recede rapidly.”