Almost six billion dollars will be overspending of the Pentagon's funds for the maintenance of fifth-generation F-35 fighters by 2036, if the military cannot reduce spending on this budget item.
This conclusion was reached by specialists of The Accounting Chamber of the US government (The Government Accountability Office, GAO), who published a corresponding report. Thus, the maintenance of one F-35A fighter for the Air Force, according to previously adopted budget restrictions, should not exceed $ 4.1 million per year, but already in the 2020 fiscal year, the actual costs reached 7.8 million.
Even more expensive for the Pentagon are the F-35B and F-35C aircraft created for the Marine Corps and the Navy. Their annual maintenance costs 9.1 and 9.9 million dollars, respectively, with planned costs of 6.8 and 7.5 million. Given the fact that the F-35 fleet is constantly growing, the cost of maintaining it is also growing like a snowball.
It is noteworthy that the combat readiness of the fleet of these fighters remains at a very low level. According to the GAO, over the past fiscal year, the readiness rate for at least one of the assigned tasks increased from 59 to 69 percent. But at the same time, the ability to perform all the tasks set increased from only 32 to 39 percent. Both indicators are below the previously planned level.
Faced with numerous problems in the implementation of the F-35 implementation program, the US military is increasingly giving preference to other aircraft-simpler and more reliable in handling. As RG has already written, the Pentagon previously excluded additional fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighters from the application for the 2022 budget year. In return, the military wanted to purchase more F-15EX Advanced Eagle aircraft.
Alexey Ivanov