Hmmmm. New processor?!
KenV, see my post #10704 above. Full report
here. Being cynical (moi?), keeping it in the baseline program means further cost increases in the baseline can be claimed on the costs of adding "new capabilities".....
"The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the Department of Defense’s (DOD) most expensive and ambitious acquisition program. In April 2017, we reported that acquisition costs alone are estimated at nearly $400 billion, and operating and sustainment costs are estimated to be over $1 trillion. Meanwhile, due to evolving threats and changing warfighting environments, DOD has begun planning and funding the development of new capabilities for the F-35, known as F- 35 follow-on modernization. The research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funding needed for the first modernization phase, known as Block 4, is projected to be over $3.9 billion through 2022, which would exceed the statutory and regulatory thresholds for what constitutes a major defense acquisitions program (MDAP), and would make it more expensive than many of the other MDAPs already in DOD’s portfolio.
However, DOD does not plan to make the F-35 Block 4 a separate MDAP. Instead, DOD plans to manage it under the existing F-35 acquisition program baseline. As we recommended in our April 2016 report, the modernization program should be designated as its own separate MDAP, similar to the F-22 modernization program........"