F-35 News. Cost of the F-35 drops? That's not where this fight is...IT'S ABOUT THE COST OF MAINTENANCE!

Thanks to Don for the link!

via Breaking Defense.

Pentagon acquisition czar Ellen Lord’s statement says it: “This is a historic milestone for the F-35 Enterprise, and marks the largest procurement in the history of the Department. The $34B agreement for F-35 Low Rate Initial Production Lots 12-14 will see the delivery of 478 F-35 aircraft, 157 for Lot 12, in support of our U.S. Military services, our Partner Nations, and our Foreign Military Sales customers.”

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the biggest conventional weapons program in history has just set the record for a single deal in, well, probably, any country at any time. For perspective, the entire Australian defense budget for 2019 came in at about $27.52 billion US.

Here are some of the more important details from today’s announcement. Top of the list is the fact that the flyaway price of the F-35A will drop below $80 million one year earlier than planned in Low Rate of Initial Production (LRIP) Lot 13. Lord said in the statement that the Pentagon will reap an estimated 8.8 percent in savings from Lot 11 to Lot 12 for F-35A’s, and an average of 15 percent reduction “across all variants from Lot 11 to Lot 14.”

Story here. 

My title tells my thinking but let me expand on it.

I don't care if we're getting the planes free at this point.  The cost of the plane is no longer the battle ground.

If you're still focusing on the initial buy then you're behind the power curve.

The fight is firmly locked on the cost to maintain these planes.  Interestingly enough we had the warning we needed not only in past reports about the maintenance and parts situation with the F-35 BUT ALSO with the dire state we see the B-1 Bomber in.

Think about it.

The planes need special facilities on land.  Our newest carrier needs modification before it's able to operate them.  ALIS is a fucking mess from the bowels of hell because even SATAN has rejected it.

It even needs a specially painted fuel truck to keep its jet fuel cool.

I don't care if they drop the price to 10 million dollars per plane.  The issue is maintenance, parts, infrastructure and operating costs.