Meet the F-35: The DoD's Pricey Benchwarming Plane

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/100614024



Meet the F-35: The DoD's Pricey Benchwarming Plane
By: Daniel Bukszpan
Published: Friday, 5 Apr 2013 | 3:55 PM ET

Should North Korea's hostile rhetoric give way to action, the U.S. military has sent F-22 fighters to defend South Korea. These fighters carry a price tag of $143 million each ($418 million dollars each according to Time Magazine) , making them the most expensive in use.

That could change if the F-35 Lightning II were deployed. Yet by all indications, that won't be happening anytime soon — if at all.

According to Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Project on Government Oversight, the F-35 program now costs approximately $200 million per craft (this camper maintains F-35s are at least $243 million dollars each).

Despite the princely sums spent on the fighter, the plane has never been used in a combat scenario —a situation that Wheeler claims is pushing up its cost, since it missed its original 2012 deployment date.