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Joint Strike Fighter: Impact of Recent Decisions on Program Risks

GAO-08-569T Published: Mar 11, 2008. Publicly Released: Mar 11, 2008.
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Highlights

The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is the Department of Defense's (DOD) most expensive aircraft acquisition program. DOD is expected to develop, procure, and maintain 2,443 aircraft at a cost of more than $950 billion. DOD plans for the JSF to replace or complement several types of aircraft in the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. Given the program's cost and importance, it is critical that decisions are made within this program to maximize its benefit to the nation. This testimony highlights a number of those decisions and impacts. It (1) discusses emerging risks to the overall program, and (2) updates information for GAO's cost analysis of last year regarding sole-source and competitive scenarios for acquisition and sustainment of the JSF engine. Information on the overall program is from our mandated annual report, also issued today. GAO tracked annual cost and schedule changes, reasons for changes, decisions affecting development, and compared DOD cost estimating methodologies to best practices. For the two engines, GAO updated cost data from last year's testimony and made new projections.

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Topics

AircraftCost analysisCost overrunsDefense cost controlDefense procurementFighter aircraftFinancial managementMilitary aircraftMilitary research and developmentOperational testingPerformance measuresProgram evaluationProgram managementResearch and development costsRisk assessmentRisk managementSchedule slippagesCost estimatesProgram goals or objectives