Pentagon sees progress on cost of F-35, long way to go

The Pentagon's recent focus on pricing has led to "remarkable progress" in cutting the cost of the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter program, but the plane still costs more than it should to build and operate, Director of Defense Pricing Shay Assad said. We're doing OK, but we have a long way to go to get to what a Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) should cost," Assad said in an interview last week. The Pentagon expects to spend $392 billion to develop and build 2,443 F-35 jets for the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, 70 percent more than initial projections. Assad said the cost analysis initiative had saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars on some contracts.

via Business News - Yahoo Finance http://finance.yahoo.com/news/pentagon-sees-progress-cost-f-004927817.html