The Government Accountability Office (GAO) yesterday issued a new report of interest to the life cycle logistics and product support community yesterday entitled “GAO-21-439 F-35 Sustainment: DOD Needs to Cut Billions in Estimated Costs to Achieve Affordability”.

According to the GAO, “DOD plans to acquire nearly 2,500 F-35 aircraft for about $400 billion. It projects spending another $1.27 trillion to operate and sustain them—an estimate that has steadily increased since 2012. The military services collectively face tens of billions of dollars in sustainment costs that they project will be unaffordable. For example, the Air Force needs to reduce estimated annual per-plane costs by $3.7 million (47%) by 2036, or costs in that year alone will be $4.4 billion more than it can afford. We recommended, among other things, that Congress consider making future F-35 acquisitions contingent on progress reducing sustainment costs.”

On a related note, there are a number of other recent GAO reports and testimony on this important topic, including:

• GAO-20-234T F-35 Aircraft Sustainment: DOD Faces Challenges in Sustaining a Growing Fleet
• GAO-20-316 Weapon System Sustainment: DOD Needs a Strategy for Re-Designing the F-35's Central Logistics System
• GAO-20-665T F-35 Sustainment: DOD Needs to Address Key Uncertainties as It Re-Designs the Aircraft's Logistics System
• GAO-21-505T F-35 Sustainment: Enhanced Attention to and Oversight of F-35 Affordability Are Needed