https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/f35-sustainment-costs-44pct-controversy

F-35 Sustainment Costs Up 44% in Six Years: Lawmakers Slam 100 Million Dollar Paperweights Rarely Operationally Ready

Amid rising controversies surrounding the F-35 fifth generation fighter program, a House Armed Services Committee hearing has seen particularly significant criticisms raised against it. At the centre of discussions has been a recent Government Accountability Office audit finding that projected sustainment costs for the program had risen by 44 percent since 2018, with these rising from $1.1 trillion in 2018 to $1.58 trillion in 2023 across the fleet’s lifetime. This was on top of the planned future spending of $2 trillion acquiring 1,800 additional airframes. The report further stressed that the fighter’s particularly poor "full mission capable rate,” which is totally in a league of its own within the fleet alongside the even more problematic F-22 as by far the poorest. The report highlighted that the F-35B variant’s fully mission capable rate that year was particularly poor even among other F-35s at just 14.9 percent, with this representing the most expensive and complex variant. Very poor availability rates have been at the centre of lawmakers’ criticisms in the past, as the newly built aircraft were expected to have far better rates and less maintenance issues than worn out Cold War era F-15 and F-16 airframes many of which have served for over three decades.

Whatever, less than 30% of them are mission capable.

The B-52s are as old as us, Horse.

The Pentagon Wars | English Full Movie | Comedy War

I was involved in the early development of the AM General HMMVVS in South Bend and Mishawaka plants a lifetime ago. That movie doesn't begin to explain the cluster fuck. I was a kid back then, Kid Spook.

"Chicks with beepers." LOL I was in the game before beepers.

I worked at a Marine Corp air station in the 90's, when the F-35 was being planned , we were told that the F-35 would replace all military aircraft by 2000. To date none have been replaced plus the aircraft is not safe and will fail in combat.