Budget Watchdog Releases New Report on the Unaffordable F-35

The Unaffordable F-35: Budget History and Alternatives breaks down costs and documents cost-effective alternatives

Washington, DC – Today, Taxpayers for Common Sense released “The Unaffordable F-35: Budget History and Alternatives,” a new report documenting the cost of and alternatives to the Pentagon’s latest fighter acquisition program. The acquisition is expected to cost $8 billion in fiscal year 2015 alone. The report points out that this is roughly equivalent to the entire fiscal year 2015 budget request for the U.S. Army Reserves and almost as much as is being requested for the entire Department of Commerce. The report points to capable combat aircraft alternatives to the F-35 procurement.

“The giant sucking sound you hear from the Pentagon is this one acquisition,” said Ms. Ryan Alexander, President of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “It represents the entire Air Force combat aircraft procurement. A much more cost-effective strategy would be to procure the very capable F-15E and F-16s for a fraction of the cost and use the $1 billion in savings for other needs. Or in the case of the Navy, procure more F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets and use the extra funding to complete its combat aircraft modernization plan.”

The report also documented how delays in the procurement schedule have cost taxpayers dearly. In fact, Research, Development, Testing and Evaluation (RDT&E) costs will be nearly $40 billion more than was originally planned in the F-35 development.

“Much of the delay has come from contractors failure to meet the F-35 goals set by the Pentagon,” continued Alexander. “But instead of penalties, taxpayers have been lining contractor’s pockets with billions of dollars of additional research and redevelopment funds.”

U.S. military aircraft are tasked with many different missions including (1) air-to-surface, (2) air-to-air, (3) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), (4) Command and Control, (5) Electronic Attack, (6) Tanking, (7) Airlift, (8) Combat Search and Rescue, and (9) Global Strike. The F-35 is proposed to fulfill all of those except tanking, airlift, combat search and rescue and some aspects of global strike.

“With this enormous investment, the Pentagon has put virtually all of their combat aircraft eggs in the F-35 basket,” concluded Alexander. “The F-35 is like a platinum plated spork that is being tasked with too many missions to be cost-effective in all of them. It’s past time that the Pentagon pursue affordable alternatives that maintain America’s vast air superiority, but recognize the budget constraints of a country more than $17.5 trillion in debt.”

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