New F-35 Cockpit Computer Costs Soar by $680Mln Through Expenses, Delays - Reports

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th December, 2022) Costs of developing a new cockpit computer for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) originally set at $712 million four years ago have soared by another $239 million, generating extra expenses of $680 million so far, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

In all, the F-35 Joint Program Office has acknowledged that cost overruns on the project now total $680 million, almost doubling the original cost and also delaying delivery of the first aircraft with the upgraded hardware and software by several months from the planned completion date of July 2023, the report said.

The US government and allied nations that have bought the aircraft will pay the additional costs under the terms of the computer's development contract, the report noted.

The F-35 is the most expensive military system ever recorded and its overall cost rose in 2021 to $412 billion from $398 billion, a Department of Defense report said in September 2022.

The F-35's projected total cost was $233 billion when Lockheed Martin won the contract in 2001 to develop and build the aircraft, the report said.