The Air Force conducted a review for the life of all of its aircraft Lockheed F-35 Lightning II, the result was an increase of 6 years service fleet in the meantime is also expected to pack installation, with several updates to on-board equipment and F-35 software.
In a plan submitted to the Pentagon, which was published on March 25, the United States Air Force and the Navy have shown interest in increasing the number of hours flown across the F-35 fleet, so the cost development , construction, based, operation and maintenance increased by 6.8% compared to the same period last year. Much of this increase was caused by the US Air Force announced that an increase to 1.3 million by 2070 flight hours with its fleet of F-35 in 1763, as the Navy decided to increase only to 300 thousand flight hours to date.
The General Chief of F-35 in the USAF program, Christopher Bogdan, is acting to achieve a reduction of up to 30% in operating costs, which also includes cheapen the production and maintenance of the variant The F-35, which according to him it is less complex to build and develop. If the goal proposed by the General is reached it would be possible to get an F-35A for about $ 80 million in 2019.
The USAF to collaborate with the reduction of government's request to costs, said it would be possible to extend the F-35 program for over six years, but with an initial target of 2 years beyond 2064 for the operational life of the jet.
