Mary-Louise Hoffman
Lockheed Martin is working with the Defense Department and F-35 suppliers to lower operation and maintenance costs for the fighter program over the next 50 years, Reuters reported Thursday.
Andrea Shalal writes that Lockheed officials recently met with representatives from DoD and 90 key F-35 suppliers in Fort Worth, Texas to brainstorm cost reduction ideas.
DoD estimates that it will cost about $1.02 trillion to operate a fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters through 2065.
“We are laser-focused on identifying the cost drivers for the F-35 air system and what we can do to reduce those costs as much as possible,” said Tom Owen, Lockheed vice president for F-35 sustainment strategies, according to Reuters.
Meeting attendees considered the use of multi-year and performance-based agreements where suppliers would have responsibility for adopting system maintenance and reliability measures, Shalal reports.
Owen also believes the such contracts will encourage suppliers to drive program costs even further by investing in hardware and process improvement efforts.
Lockheed, BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman plan to invest as much as $170 million in programs aimed at reducing the F-35 price tag to below $80 million per unit, according to Reuters.
