Winslow Wheeler, “How Much Does an F-35 Actually Cost?,” 27 July 2014, War is Boring

The F-35 is not just the most expensive warplane ever, it’s the most expensive weapons program ever. …

A single Air Force F-35A costs a whopping $148 million. One Marine Corps F-35B costs an unbelievable $251 million. A lone Navy F-35C costs a mind-boggling $337 million. Average the three models together, and a “generic” F-35 costs $178 million.

It gets worse. These are just the production costs. Additional expenses for research, development, test and evaluation are not included. The dollars are 2015 dollars. This data was just released by the Senate Appropriations Committee in its report for the Pentagon’s 2015 appropriations bill. …
It could be that the F-35B and F-35C are bearing the overheard—or other costs—of the F-35A.
Why else would an F-35B with a stable production rate increase by $19 million per unit, and how else could the cost to build an F-35C—in production for six years—increase by $64 million per unit? …

Read the full article here.