sustainment costs to legacy 4th Generation aircraft. Experts have said that unless maintenance and operating costs … The flight cost per hour is roughly $67,000. The F-35's development has been one rocky road, with one technological hurdle after another, and good news is welcome. If you're a smaller NATO or America-friendly country, you could very well settle for the Super Hornet—or strap yourself into the F-35 and pray that the operating costs decrease. One area where the F-35 is still expensive? The old argument was that aircraft such as the F-15, F/A-18E/F, and the F-16, with upgraded electronics and weapons, offered a cheaper plane at the expense of stealth and some of the F-35's high-end features. Lockheed Martin is aiming to bring the cost per flight hour on the F-35 down under US$25,000 by 2025. Currently the plane is at $109.88 million apiece. The average, steady-state O&S cost per flying hour was reported as $16,425 (fiscal year 2002 dollars). Over a 20-year period, it costs almost exactly the same amount of money to buy and fly six Super Hornets or three F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The company has reduced its portion of the F-35’s cost per flying hour by about 15 percent since 2015, he noted. Math. As Lockheed Martin ramps up to a production rate of about 141 aircraft per year for LRIP 14, its reached a per unit cost … Flight cost is commonly mistaken for maintenance cost for flight (or called ‘operation cost’) and vice versa. Cost effectiveness is a crude measure of a given unit’s ‘true’ cost used by a lot of defense analysts. Without these two updates, the F-35 estimated O&S costs would have decreased by approximately $6.2B (BY12$), or 1 percent, from last year's JPO estimate. The F-35 provides 5th generation capability – at a price that is competitive with the cost of a 4th generation fighter. Here’s how much we’re paying. F-35 program costs are evolving, and these savings matter By: Steven P. Bucci September 1, 2020 An F-35A takes off during a combat exercise at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, on May 1, 2019. A F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, for example, costs only $52 million each. Gripens were rated by Jane’s to have a cost of around $4700 per flight hour. CEO Marilyn Hewson told CNBC that with the first aircraft delivered, the defense giant is "on a path to be down to a price of $85 million per jet by 2019. ", Hewson was almost certainly referring to the -A model of the F-35, which has booked orders from the United States Air Force, Australia, Turkey, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, and Korea—more than any other variant of the F-35. Joe Letourneau Photo. In The Defense Department’s goal to reduce the F-35’s average cost per hour of flying to $25,000 by 2025 from the current estimate of $35,000 “is likely to prove unachievable” due to “a lack of defined actions” to reduce expenses. Lockheed Martin Vice President and General Manager F-35 Program Greg Ulmer said there was an effort to lower the cost per flight hour to $25,000 by 2025 but further savings would take longer. Did Trump Negotiate a $600 Million Cut to F-35. The Super Hornet costs about $17,000 an hour to fly, which comes out to $40 million. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program office underreported the average cost per flying hour for the aircraft in the 2010 SAR. The cost of operation of the F-35 appears to be in a whole other league. However, between the second Low Initial Production Rate (LRIP) in 2008 and LRIP 10 in 2016, the cost of an F-35A decreased by about 60 per cent. The cost per hour to fly, which over the lifetime of the plane can amount to more than the plane itself. this F-35 unit price includes items that add additional procurement and According to comments by manufacturer Lockheed Martin's CEO to CNBC, planes bought in 2019 will be cheaper by a factor of nearly one half. How we test gear. Oct. 2019, the U.S. Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin finalized But as the reader digests this tidbit, consider one more data point: originally, the F-35A was supposed to cost just $49 million each, adjusted for inflation. But Jane’s estimate of the actual Cost Per Flying Hour for the Eurofighter, keeping in mind supplies and scheduled maintenance raised the figure up to USD 18000. Considerable work behind the scenes goes into keeping the F-35 in the air and ready to support pilots and their missions. (The other variants include the vertical takeoff and landing -B model, which is being ordered by the U.S. Marine Corps, United Kingdom, and Italy, and the aircraft carrier-optimized -C model, which will be operated by the U.S. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Popular Mechanics participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. 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