Things Could Get Worse for Troubled Stealth Jet | Danger Room | Wired.com

Things Could Get Worse for Troubled Stealth Jet | Danger Room | Wired.com: "Delays. Cost increases. Parts failures resulting in one model being placed on sudden-death probation. It’s been a rough couple years for the nearly $400-billion Joint Strike Fighter, the biggest program in U.S. military history. And according to aviation reporter extraordinaire Bill Sweetman, things could still get a lot worse: even higher costs, more delays and increasing stress on a rapidly-aging fighter fleet.

In a series of posts (here, here and here) at the excellent Ares blog, Sweetman recaps all the recent twists and turns in F-35 development — few of them positive for taxpayers, the Pentagon or JSF lead builder Lockheed Martin. “In short, the JSF program has gone six to nine months backwards in just over two years,” Sweetman summarizes. In the same period, he adds, the cost of the jet’s development — never mind planned production of around 3,000 copies — has increased by “$21 billion or 61 percent.”

Originally, F-35s were scheduled to enter service starting in 2012. Now, the first squadrons will be combat-ready by 2016 at the earliest."