(Luft) Lockheed Martin F-35 - Lightning II

[ObiBiber]

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While the F-35’s Joint Program Office says it reduced unit costs by 3-4% in the last annual order, the value of the US dollar – and thus the cost of each F-35 to Eurozone buyers - has increased by 22% in one year -- rising from €0.73 in mid-2014 to €0.89 now.

In Norway, it will not be possible to buy the 52 aircraft currently planned if future defense budgets continue at current levels, with just the usual cost escalation. This is the official military advice that the Norwegian Chief of Defence, Adm. Haakon Bruun-Hanssen, will publish on Oct. 1, according to public broadcaster NRK.
Norway has already reduced its planned acquisition of the F-35, from the 85 it originally wanted to today’s 52, because of their high cost.

According to the Defense Ministry, the entire F-35 procurement is expected to cost 67.9 billion in real 2015 terms for the 52 planes. Cutting the purchase by ten aircraft will thus entail savings of many billions.
Dutch Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert informed Parliament Sept 15 that according to new estimates, the cost of buying 37 F-35 fighters has increased to over 5.2 billion euros -- 550 million euros more than the previous estimate. Higher sales tax adds another 75 million euros. The cause of the price increase is the “substantially higher” dollar exchange rate.

In Italy, no official statement has been made on the issue, but the 90 F-35s now planned (down from the original 131) are likely to cost more than 30% more than planned because of dollar’s 30% appreciation since the order was awarded in 2011 -- increasing from 0.65 euros to the current 0.90 euros.

Similar increases tied to the strong dollar are also due in other countries, such as Australia -- where the US dollar’s value has increased from A$1.08 to A$1.41 -- and Turkey, where the dollar’s value has increased from 5.9 to 8.15 Turkish lira.

Asian customers face much lower currency-related cost increases as the dollar’s appreciation relative to the South Korean won (1,060 won to 1,170 won) and Japanese yen (from 101 to 120 for one US dollar) has been lower than elsewhere.

also so ziemlich alle Exportkunden (Japan, Australine, Europa) leiden unter dem "starken" Dollar...
wenn die Maschinen 30% teurer werden...wird in den meisten Fällen wohl die Stückzahl entsprechend gekürzt...oder gar der eine oder andere Kunde komplett abspringen...weil die Alternativen im Verhältnis deutlich günstiger werden...