How Lockheed Martin's Grand Plan for the F-35 Fell Apart
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/18/how-lockheed-martins-grand-plan-for-the-f-35-fell.aspx
The Pentagon's next-generation fighter jet might not be "common" at all.
How Lockheed Martin's Grand Plan for the F-35 Fell Apart
Rich Smith
Mar 18, 2016 at 10:13AM
Once upon a time, there was an F-22 Raptor. It was a good plane -- some even called it "the most capable air superiority combat jet in the world" -- but it cost a lot.
At a sticker price of $412 million per plane , the U.S. Air Force couldn't afford to buy a lot of F-22s. So, to ensure it had a good quantity of fighter jets, as well as a few of good quality, the Air Force proposed a "high-low" solution. On the high end, it would buy a handful of ultra-expensive F-22s to ensure air dominance. On the low end, to boost its numbers and ensure its ability to carry a lot of bombs into combat,
it would buy a whole mess of F-35 Lightning II fighter jets -- projected to cost just $35 million each. (Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), which builds both planes, was happy to oblige on both ends).
That was the plan. Instead, the F-35 fighter jet is turning out to be the most expensive fighter jet ever built, and is expected to ultimately cost taxpayers as much as $1.5 trillion.
How did we get it so wrong?
The story of Air Force's monumental miscalculation of the F-35's true cost is one that will go down in the history books -- and indeed, is already considered an historical fact. But the thing is, it was a miscalculation, and not an intentional misdirection.