Cost of Lockheed F-35 jet deal lilkely to exceed US$1.5 trillion

The F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft. — Bloomberg

WASHINGTON: The world’s costliest weapons programme, Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 fighter jet, is getting even more expensive, according to a government watchdog.

Nine years after the Marine Corps declared its first F-35s operational, the Pentagon now projects that the cost of operating and maintaining the jet through 2088 will be US$1.58 trillion, 44% higher than originally forecast in 2018, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said on Monday in a new assessment.