The Department of Defense’s cost estimates for the acquisition of major weapons platforms climbed from $1.92T in 2017 to $2T in 2018 covering 87 programs. According to the annual Selected Acquisition Reports, the total program costs for DoD rose by 4 percent to $624.1B driven by the F-35 program. The total acquisition cost of the program jumped by $15.3B in base year 2012 dollars.
The U.S. Army’s program costs for the AH-64E Apache new build initiative increased by 22.4 percent to $2.4B, while the program costs for the CH-47F Block II cargo helicopter rose nearly 20 percent to $26.9B. The Pentagon also increased its projected costs for several U.S. Army programs such as Common Infrared Countermeasure; Joint Air-to-Ground Missile; Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement and Paladin Integrated Management.
The estimated program costs for U.S. Air Force’s Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile increased from $4.7B to approximately $10B. Aside from JASSM, other Air Force initiatives that saw an increase in estimated program costs are the B-2 Defensive Management System – Modernization, Joint Direct Attack Munition and the National Security Space Launch effort.
DoD said several U.S. Navy programs saw increases in cost estimates and those include the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer (DDG 51), AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder, Littoral Combat Ship and the KC-130J transport aircraft.
