Air Forces Brushes Off $27 Billion Accounting Error

Air Force leaders on Monday shrugged off concerns that the service got the projected 10-years cost of its next-generation bomber wrong to the tune of more than $27 billion.

Last year, the Air Force told Congress the estimated cost for developing the Long-Range Strike Bomber from fiscal years 2015 to 2024 would be $33.1 billion. This year, the service put the price tag at $58.2 billion between fiscal 2016 and 2026, a 76 percent increase.

The service has since said the actual cost should have been $41.7 billion all along. Beyond that, officials aren’t sweating how such an error occurred in what is estimated to be a $55 billion, multi-decade program.

“There has been no change in the costing factors over the last two years … it was a mistake. It was a regrettable mistake,” Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said during a Pentagon press briefing.

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