Exhibit 337 · GAO report
F-35 Sustainment: Costs Continue to Rise While Planned Use and Availability Have Decreased (GAO-24-106703)
DOD estimates the F-35 program will cost over $2 trillion to buy, operate, and sustain over its lifetime.
DoD estimates over $2 trillion to buy, operate and sustain the F-35; sustainment estimate rose 44 percent from 2018 to 2023.
- Source
- U.S. Government Accountability Office
- Date
- 15 April 2024
- Quoted from
- p. 2
- Grade
- Primary record
- Document
- https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106703
- Accessed
- 2026-11-09
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit
- Note
- Further quotation: “The F-35 fleet’s overall availability has trended downward considerably over the past 5 years, and none of the variants are meeting availability goals” (Key Takeaways, PDF p. 2). Page 1: 'DOD operates and sustains about 630 F-35 aircraft and plans to procure about 2,500 total by the mid-2040s.' Key Takeaways also state that since 2014 GAO had made 43 recommendations and that 30 (about 70 percent) remained unimplemented. Report date 15 April 2024. Read from a Wayback capture of gao.gov/assets/gao-24-106703.pdf.