Joint Strike Fighter: Accelerating Procurement before Completing Development Increases the Government's Financial Risk
Abstract
JSF development will cost more and take longer than reported to the Congress last year, and DOD wants to accelerate procurement believing that will more quickly recapitalize tactical air forces. The program office estimates that an additional $2.4 billion is needed for cost overruns on the air system and engine contracts and for a 1-year extension to the development schedule. Its estimate does not include funding for the alternate engine program. An independent joint DOD cost estimating team identified a need for as much as $7.4 billion in additional funding for development through fiscal year 2015 and a 3-year schedule extension. This would increase total system development costs to $51.8 billion --a 17 percent increase from the April 2008 estimate-and delay completion of development to October 2016. The joint team's cost estimate was higher than the program office's estimate because it included the alternate engine effort directed by the Congress and made more conservative assumptions about engineer staffing levels, software requirements growth, manufacturing labor hours, and flight testing. Despite development cost increases and schedule delays, DOD officials want to accelerate JSF procurement by purchasing an additional 169 aircraft from fiscal years 2010 through 2015. This would require up to $33.4 billion in additional procurement funding for those 6 years and expose the government to additional risk from future cost increases because of the contract type. The plan would not increase the total JSF quantity through completion, but would buy these aircraft earlier than planned. DOD did not estimate the net effect this plan would have on future procurement funding to complete JSF acquisition.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA494999
Entities
People
- Bruce Fairbairn
- Charlie Shivers
- Georgeann Higgins
- Greg Campbell
- Karen Richey
- Matt Lea
- Michael Sullivan
- Ridge Bowman
- Tim Boatwright
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office