Nuclear Upgrade for the Pentagon’s Gajillion-Dollar Fighter

• By Nathan Hodge
• April 7, 2010 |
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As part of a newly unveiled Nuclear Posture Review, the Pentagon has made public plans to make its all-purpose stealth fighter capable of carrying nuclear weapons. But in the interim, it still has to cope with some massive (but not massively surprising) cost overruns on the aircraft, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The Nuclear Posture Review, a sweeping statement of purpose for the U.S. nuclear arsenal, cast light on a rarely-discussed piece of the nuclear deterrent: tactical nukes that are stationed in Europe. In a briefing yesterday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said these weapons would remain a key piece NATO’s defensive shield. But he added that the review “does … draw attention to the number of tactical nuclear weapons, and also to the number of non-deployed weapons that we’re looking at; and that these clearly should be part of the arms-control agenda as we move forward.”

One of those “non-strategic” nukes is the B-61, a “dial-a-yield” bomb that can be delivered by a number of aircraft. According to the nuclear review, the Air Force plans to conduct a “full scope B-61 (nuclear bomb) Life Extension Program to ensure its functionality with the F-35″ to incorporate new safety, security and reliability enhancements.

According to the review, the Air Force wants to “retain a dual-capable fighter” that can drop both conventional and nuclear weapons as the F-16 Fighting Falcon is phased out and replaced by the F-35.

So far, so good. But the JSF program has been plagued by major cost overruns, as well as a serious slip in schedule. It now looks like the next-gen fighters won’t be ready for the Air Force until 2015, two years after they were supposed to become available.

And the cost overruns are likely to be even greater than anticipated. Inside Defense (subscription only) reported yesterday that the Pentagon has advised Congress that F-35 costs could rise as high as $158.1 million per airframe, a record new high.

That figure, Inside Defense reports, is based on a Congressionally mandated independent cost estimate. According to the story, a Pentagon report sent to Congress on April 1 expects that costs will increase much as 18.4 percent, adding as much as $60.4 billion to the current $328.2 billion total JSF program cost.

[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]

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