F-35’s price might rise, Lockheed warns
After years of declines, the jet’s cost is being pushed by upgrades, inflation, and a proposal to buy fewer of them.
AUDREY DECKER | JULY 25, 2024
AIR FORCE NAVY MARINE CORPS INDUSTRY PENTAGON FARNBOROUGH AIR SHOW
Updated: 1:58 p.m. ET.
FARNBOROUGH, UK—The price tag for F-35 Lightning II jets has been coming down for years, but that might not be the case in the production lots now being negotiated, Lockheed Martin officials said.
Lockheed will be “challenged” to keep the price of an F-35 under the rate of inflation in the next contract for lots 18 and 19, according to Greg Ulmer, head of Lockheed aeronautics.
“Inflation is real. The cost of raw materials has gone up. The cost of everything has gone up, so there is just inflation pressure in the system,” Ulmer told Defense One on the sidelines of the Farnborough Air Show.
The cost of an F-35 had been declining for years as Lockheed received large orders from the U.S. and its allies and the company found efficiencies in its production line. But inflation, the jet’s increasing capability and complexity, and the Pentagon’s proposed cut to the planned F-35 buy in the 2025 budget—the fate of which is still being considered by Congress—could result in a price hike in the next contract.
https://www.defenseone.com/business/2024/07/f-35s-price-might-rise-lockheed-warns/398323/?oref=d1-homepage-top-story
