Higher Costs, Lower Orders Could Spell Trouble

It was designed to be a significant leap forward in affordable fighter plane technology... but the money required to develop the upcoming Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II may mean significantly fewer orders down the line for the advanced aircraft.

Pentagon officials say spiraling program costs, along with scaled-back orders, mean individual planes will end up costing more... and as the military looks to cut spending, that may result in what one official called the "death spiral" that's also complicating sales of the similar F-22 fighter.

"You get into this classic problem of the airplane continues to get more expensive, and therefore you buy less airplanes, and it gets more expensive and you buy less airplanes," Lockheed F-35 program head Tom Burbage told the Associated Press at a recent briefing. "We are trying to get out of that spiral."

The F-35 was designed to be a relatively inexpensive plane to build and sell, with per-plane prices falling between $37 million and $47 million depending on the version. Lockheed planned to build more than 2,800 of the so-called "Joint Strike Fighters" when it won the contract in 2001... but by the end of 2005, that order had already been scaled back by 350 planes.

As Congress looks to cut costs wherever it can, that number is likely to fall further... especially as current F-35 prices hover between $44.5 million and $61.7 million.

"Every time critics succeed in getting it cut, the average cost of the airplane goes up," said analyst Loren Thompson with the Lexington Institute. "What is beginning to happen to the F-35 is precisely what happened to the F-22."

As Aero-News reported, Congress has approved the purchase of only 183 total F-22s for the US Air Force, less than half the original target of 381 planes.

The first production-spec F-35 is due to take flight before the end of the year... without a clear horizon yet in sight.

FMI: www.lockheedmartin.com