UK to Spend £2.7 Billion for First F-35 Squadron As Compiled by Defense-Aerospac — The Royal Air Force will spend over £2.1 billion to pay for its first squadron of Lockheed F-35, according to the UK National Audit Office (NAO). The NAO’s latest report also reveals that the UK’s investment in the F-35 program, pegged at £2,873 million in the NAO’s report on FY2013, nearly doubled to £5,622 million in this latest report, which covers the financial year from April 2013 to March 2014. This huge jump in the cost of the F-35 is revealed in a footnote in the NAO’s report on “MoD Major Programs,” issued Jan 14, 2015. The footnote says that “the approved cost of the [program’s] Demonstration and Manufacture Phase has risen from £2,873 million in our 2013 report to £5,622 million in this report [for 2014]. This is because the 2013 amount only covers the first four demonstrator aircraft, but the 2014 number covers the first squadron of aircraft. “The figure of £5,622 million quoted in our report covers the cost of 4 demonstrator aircraft plus the cost of the first squadron,” an NAO spokesman told Defense-Aerospace on Jan 15. He declined to elaborate, however, saying “These figures are provided by the Ministry of Defence, and are not endorsed by the NAO” which merely uses them to evaluate the coherence of long-term spending plans. An MoD spokesperson confirmed Jan 16 the year-on-year cost increase revealed in the footnote, but said the £5622 million figure “is the approved value of all Lightning II Business Cases up to and including Main Gate 4,” and not only Main Gate 4. In the NAOs report, various accounting changes reduced the approved cost of £5,622 million by £586 million, for a net total cost of £2,163 million for the first squadron. (£5,622m - £586m = £5,036m - £2,873m = £2,163m) [read on!]
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 00:39:02 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015