Joint Strike Fighter's price tag going up, auditors say

Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter, already the most expensive weapons program ever, is projected to increase in price by as much as $38 billion, congressional auditors said Tuesday.

That would bring the cost to develop and build 2,458 U.S. aircraft to $337 billion, 45 percent above the estimate when the program started in October 2001.

“Midway through development, the program is over cost and behind schedule,” Michael Sullivan, who tracks the program for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, told two panels of the House Armed Services Committee that oversee military spending.

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