While two of these areas are very close to appropriate maturity levels, the Joint Strike Fighter’s critical technologies are not projected to be matured to levels that we believe would indicate a low risk program at the planned start of the engineering and manufacturing development phase. The Joint Strike Fighter Program has made good progress in some technology areas.
What GAO Found

The Joint Strike Fighter Program (JSFP), the military's most expensive aircraft program, is intended to produce affordable, next-generation aircraft to replace aging aircraft in military inventories. Although JSFP has made good progress in some technology areas, the program may not meet its affordability objective because critical technologies are not projected to be matured to levels GAO believes would indicate a low risk program at the planned start of engineering and manufacturing development in October 2001.