The F-35 alone represents about 20 per cent of the entire budget allocated for the current fiscal year, 1,6 billion dollars, for 77 Department of Defense programs (69 of which are closely linked).
On March 20th 2015, a single F-35A costs 108 million dollars. The entire propulsion system of the aircraft costs four million dollars in mere compared to previous estimates.
Considering the entire production, Lockheed Martin, in a statement a few hours ago said it was extremely satisfied with the savings of almost 60 billion dollars in operations and support costs obtained.
The costs will fall considerably - they add from the company - within the next decade.
Here is the annual situation of some of the programs being acquired.
aeronautics
The cost of the new JSOW air-to-ground ammunition grew by 45,8% and the initial order of 7000 weapon systems was reduced to 3185 units
The cost of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program has dropped by 4,2%.
Costs for the Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) program are $ 555,2 million.
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The costs of the JDAM program increased by 13%, but in this case the increase is related to the fact that the US is using more bombs due to the daily bombing of the Islamic State.
The annual supply has risen to 31.509 JDAM.
Marina
For the Navy, the costs have increased by 4,3 billion dollars for the acquisition of two other Arleigh Burke class missile destroyers (photo on the right) that from 80 will pass to 82.
1,5 billions of dollars set aside for the acquisition of 150 EA-18G Growler.
Army
The costs of the Joint Tactical Radio System Handheld, Manpack and Small Form Fit Radio program have dropped from 12,2 to 10,5 billion.
The Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program and related upgrades envisage the acquisition of 3583 devices compared to the 5627 planned. The acquisition was postponed for two years for classified reasons. The move equates to a drop in costs from 3,7 to 1,9 billion dollars.
Franco Iacch
(photo: Lockheed Martin / US Navy)
