F-35 To Cost $1.45 Trillion Over Fifty Years

This is a growing problem in our inventory - weapons that are too expensive to risk in battle.

Now Reuters is reporting that the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) office estimates that it will cost $1.45 trillion over the next 50-plus years to buy and operate the JSF fleet. Wow.
Apparently, much of this is due to the cost of inflation over the coming decades:

While inflation accounts for more than one-third of the projected F-35 operating costs, military officials and industry executives were quick to point out that it is nearly impossible to predict inflation over the next half-century.

They also argue that no other weapons program’s costs have been calculated over such a long period, and that even shorter-term cost projections for other aircraft do not include the cost of modernization programs and upgrades.

Read more: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2012/03/30/f-35-to-cost-1-45-trillion-over-next-50-years/#ixzz1qyqg4zvB
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