TALKING POINTS ON F-35 JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER

The F-35 is the poster child of Pentagon fighting the last war: [1]

The F-35 was designed to fight the wars between great powers that are a thing of the past. The future of America’s security will not be determined by aerial combat between fleets of opposing aircraft, but by things like cyber security, counterterrorism and investing in economic competitiveness.

The F-35 is simply unaffordable:[2]

The program is expected to account for a whopping 38 percent of Pentagon procurement for defense programs, assuming its cost will grow no more. Last February, the price increased another 4 percent to $395.7 billion and then even further in April. The test program is only 20 percent complete, the Government Accountability Office has reported. Overall, the program's cost has grown 75 percent from its original 2001 estimate of $226.5 billion -- and that was for a larger buy of 2,866 aircraft.

The F-35 will actually cost multiples of the $395.7 billion cited above. That is the current estimate only to acquire it, not the full life-cycle cost to operate it. The current appraisal for operations and support is $1.1 trillion -- making for a grand total of $1.5 trillion, or more than the annual GDP of Spain. To be very conservative, expect the F-35 to be twice the operating and support cost of the F-16.

Putting an end to Pentagon waste begins with cutting the F-35 – a plane that doesn’t even work: [3]

The Pentagon will spend at least $1.5 trillion on 2,500 F-35s. But nearly all of the capabilities that were supposed to make the plane “next-generation” have yet to actually work right, including: the helmet mounted display, the engine, the radar and even the software that controls the aircraft’s functions.

Even if the F-35 worked as advertised – which it doesn’t – it still would still be a bad investment:

Despite costing $1.5 trillion, the F-35 would not actually delivery a big advancement in capabilities. The plane is roughly equal to or worse than many of the fighter jets it will be replacing (and some of the enemy jets it would face in combat) in important respects, including: maneuverability, speed or acceleration.

The F-35 isn't only expensive -- it's way behind schedule: [4]

The first plan was to have an initial batch of F-35s available for combat in 2010. Then first deployment was to be 2012. More recently, the military services have said the deployment date is "to be determined." A new target date of 2019 has been informally suggested in testimony -- almost 10 years late.

Hundreds of F-35s will be built before 2019, when initial testing is complete. The additional cost to engineer modifications to fix the inevitable deficiencies that will be uncovered is unknown, but it is sure to exceed the $534 million already known from tests so far. The total program unit cost for each individual F-35, now at $161 million, is only a temporary plateau. Expect yet another increase in early 2013, when a new round of budget restrictions is sure to hit the Pentagon, and the F-35 will take more hits in the form of reducing the numbers to be bought, thereby increasing the unit cost of each plane.

Thanks to Pentagon Budget Campaign March 2013

[1] French, William. National Security Network. 18 Mar 2013.

[2] Wheeler, Winslow. “The Jet That Ate the Pentagon,” Foreign Policy. 26 Apr 2012. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/26/the_jet_that_ate_the_pentagon?page=full

[3] French 2013

[4] Wheeler 2012