Senior US and European military officers have agreed to work more closely together to help reduce the operating costs of the F 35s.
Operating costs were an issue, unanimous in the thinking of military officials from the United States, Israel, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Turkey and the Netherlands. They met in Germany last week and at the end of the business meetings, they said:
"We discussed the importance of ensuring that future costs, in particular for maintenance, are kept to a minimum so as not to cut future purchases," said US Air Force Colonel Leslie Hauck, who heads the office integration of the fifth generation.
US Chief of Staff General David Goldfein worked this year to reduce the flight and maintenance costs of the F 35s to the same levels as current fighters without stealth capabilities.
Experts say the US Air Force - the largest purchaser of the F 35 - could reduce the planned purchase of 1.763 aircraft where the cost of flying aircraft could not be reduced.
The latest Pentagon report on the program estimated the F-35's cost per flight hour at about $ 30.000 per flight hour in 2012, compared to about $ 25.500 per hour for an older generation F-16 fighter.
The purchase cost of new jets has declined and is expected to be 80 million dollars per aircraft within 2020, but more work is needed to reduce jet handling costs, said Colonel Hauck. The US Air Force wants to cut operating costs of the 38 percent, he added
Air force chiefs of the program nations discussed the issue at the Royal International Air Tattoo, the world's largest military air show, in England in July, and will retract the issue at a meeting in November.
The Pentagon's office of the F-35 program last week said it would begin distributing and sharing information with partners on maintenance procedures, personnel requirements and other key metrics.
"To achieve the common goal we need to start sharing information about lessons learned", Said Hauck, emphasizing that his office was also reaching F-35 users in Asia - Japan, Australia and South Korea - for their contributions.