Learning Curve

A Lockheed Martin executive said today that the company's learning curve on the F-35 is comparable or slightly better than its experience with earlier generations of fighter jets it has built. Bruce Tanner, Lockheed's chief financial officer, told investors on a quarterly earnings conference call that a cost-reduction process and the implementation of lessons learned on the Joint Strike Fighter is “in [the] family or a little better than” what the company executed with the F-16, F-22 and even older F-117 aircraft.

Tanner also discussed the overall cost of the F-35 program's two concurrent contracts -- its low-rate initial production agreement and its continued development contract -- over the next year. According to Tanner, the cost of developmental activities is projected to decrease by about $100 million in calendar year 2012 when compared to 2011, but the increases in LRIP costs will “more than offset” that difference. In total, the F-35 program should cost the government about seven percent more in 2012 than it will in 2011, Tanner said.