The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

GAO-05-271 Tactical Aircraft: Opportunity to Reduce Risks in the Joint Strike Fighter Program with Different Acquisition Strategy

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program is the DoD's most costly acquisition, seeking to simultaneously develop, produce, and field three aircraft variants for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and eight international partners. The total expected U.S. investment is now more than $300 billion to develop and procure 2,456 aircraft over the next 25 years. A report in March 2009 discussed increased dev¿t. costs and schedule estimates, plans to accelerate procurement, manufacturing performance and delays, and dev¿t. test strategy. This testimony discusses: (1) current JSF cost and schedule estimates; (2) engine dev¿t.; (3) manufacturing performance; (4) contracting issues for procurement of aircraft; (5) and test plans. Illustrations.