So context is crucial to understanding what F-35 cost projections mean.
FORBES: Massive Cost Estimate For Fighter Program Is Misleading
This point has been noted repeatedly by the Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency, and explains why items like aircraft modifications, pilot training and information systems are captured in the F-35 cost estimates but not in the support-cost estimates for previous planes.
FORBES: Massive Cost Estimate For Fighter Program Is Misleading
The F-35 shouldn't cost as much as the F-22, and it's more versatile.
All told, government adjustments unrelated to contractor performance have more than doubled F-35 support-cost estimates since the program began.
FORBES: Massive Cost Estimate For Fighter Program Is Misleading
The program was halted due to high unit cost of F-22 and delays in Russian and Chinese fifth-generation fighter jet programs.
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Moreover, skeptics declare, the F-22 is running way over cost estimates and is suffering serious technological glitches.
As for the cost of the F-22, the same criticisms were made years ago when the F-15 and the F-18 were being developed.
In other words, most of the increases in the acquisition cost of the F-35 have nothing to do with the performance of the prime contractor.
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Critics say that the F-22 fighter has vastly exceeded its cost estimates.
In April the auditor general accused the government of misleading Parliament about the cost of an order for F-35 jet fighters.
The bottom line is that half of the entire cost now attributed to the F-35 program for lifetime operations and sustainment is the result of changes made by the government since its inception in how estimates should be calculated and what the scope of the program should be.
FORBES: Super-Weapon: Why Have F-35 Fighter Costs Increased?
The fewer planes governments order, the more each one will cost and the less attractive the F-35 will be.
When comparisons are adjusted to remove this disparity, the cost per flight hour of the F-35 is only about ten percent higher than that of legacy planes for a fighter that is far more survivable and effective.
FORBES: Massive Cost Estimate For Fighter Program Is Misleading
Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said Mr Cameron should now apologise for the government's "incompetence", saying that the prime minister had ignored warnings from the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office about the "high risk and high cost" of opting for the F-35C.
The Pentagon guesses that it will cost a third more to run the F-35 than the aircraft it is replacing.
The problem of cost overruns lies not so much in the F-22 itself as in the entire government procurement and development process, an area that badly needs reform.
The Navy insists that it supports the plan of record for the Lockheed Martin plane, but it has already restructured the program once and now is studying whether the number of F-35s in carrier air wings should be cut due to cost constraints.
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The move will be a major boost to Lockheed Martin, whose F-35 programme has been criticised in the US for its high cost and production delays.
Cost overruns as they affect continued allied support for procurement of the F-35 comprise another problem the firm must resolve.
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