According to a US Air Force analysis, the maintenance costs of the F35 must be reduced by almost 40%, otherwise it will be forced to reduce the number of aircraft by 590 units, or 35% of the 1763 expected aircraft. According to this analysis, the US Air Force has, for the time being, no serious leads to significantly lower the maintenance costs of the aircraft which will cost more than $ 1 trillion to the American public finances over the life of the aircraft. the device. Maintenance also appears to be an issue for other device customers, such as the UK, Australia and the Netherlands, who are considering reducing the number of devices.
The effective price of maintaining the F35 is one of the most difficult pieces of information to obtain. Sources have announced that the flight hour of the F35 exceeds $30.000, but based on the figures announced by the US Air Force, and assuming that each aircraft flies 250 hours per year, the current cost of the hour of flight would exceed the current $35.000 on the basis of a unit purchase price of $100 million.
In fact, we have:
(1750×100)+38%(1750xn) = (1200×100)+(1200xn)
ó115 xn = 45.000 ón = $390 million
Each device currently would cost $400 million over its lifetime, excluding purchase. If we consider that the aircraft will have a lifespan of 50 years, each aircraft will cost 9 million euros per year, for 250 hours of annual flights (high hypothesis), we do have a price per hour of theft of $36.000.
According to information provided by the US Air Force, the cost is broken down between the manufacturer and the US Air Force itself. But it is difficult to imagine that it has not already optimized its procedures as much as possible to reduce the maintenance costs of the device. In fact, the 38% reduction requested only concerns the industrial sector.
And there, one of two things:
- or he announces that he can do it, and this means that until now, Lockheed is overexploiting the armies like cash cows
- Either he announces that it is impossible, and the US Air Force will have to reduce the number of aircraft ordered, which will have an impact on the unit prices of the aircraft, and on unit maintenance costs.
Indeed, the US Air Force wishes to acquire 1763 aircraft out of the 2456 aircraft ordered by the American armed forces, and the 500 aircraft ordered by air forces worldwide. The cancellation of 590 devices would represent a drop of almost 20% in overall orders for the device, and therefore in the breakdown of the R&D of the program, i.e. an increase of at least 10% in the unit price of the devices.
However, this increase, associated with the exorbitant maintenance price of the F35, will also have an impact on orders from F35 customers, who will, in turn, have to reduce the volume of orders.
It is therefore unlikely that the F35 will ever actually fall below $30.000 per flight hour, without taking into account update and modernization programs, which also show signs of exorbitant costs.