Not only does it have to be in production, it has to be software compatible with the existing Block3F.

CPI from 1994 to 2016 was a total of 51.5%, or a compiled 67.5%
starting with the original 1994 cost estimate of $28 million for the F-35A
then it should have cost $46.9 million in 2016
instead it cost $109.88 million, more than double

Disingenuous Much???

You are comparing a pre-contest & pre-contract “JSF” estimation of the lifetime average cost to an LRIP cost.

Nobody has argued that they have not blown the cost estimation, but at least use numbers based on realities instead of Pre-contract estimations of which the JPO/LM have zero control over.

By 2001 the contract had been signed and the SAR published with estimated numbers.

Looking at the Dec 2001 SAR the lifetime average URF for a F-35A was $43.93 mil in BY2002 dollars. This was the first time a hard number was put to a requirement.

$44 in BY2002 dollars is $63.5 in TY2020 dollars.

When a final contract price is announced, it includes all items listed for that contract number (ie all long-lead items, payment advances like the “about a $Billion” payment from last year, etc).

Also keep in mind that final price announcements, since they are referring to an already existing contract, will never appear on the .gov contract announcement site.

Really? Adding lonf lead items procured in 2015 and engines ordered separately (in july i think)?

I was referring to the lifetime average cost per the latest SAR.

Here is the Airframe section–

The DoD average F-35 Aircraft Unit Recurring Flyaway (URF) Cost consists of the Hardware (Airframe, Vehicle Systems,
Mission Systems, and Engineering Change Order) costs over the life of the program. The URF assumes the quantity
benefits of 115 FMS aircraft and 612 International Partner aircraft.

F-35A (Conventional Take Off and Landing) URF – $65.7 M (BY 2012)
F-35B (Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing) URF – $77.3M (BY 2012)
F-35C (Carrier Variant) URF – $78 M (BY 2012)

Engine Section–

The DoD average F-35 Engine Unit Recurring Flyaway (URF) Cost consists of the Hardware (Propulsion and Engineering
Change Order) costs over the life of the program. The URF assumes the quantity benefits of 115 FMS engines and 612
International Partner engines.
F-35A (Conventional Take Off and Landing) URF – $11 M (BY 2012)
F-35B (Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing) URF – $27.7 M (BY 2012)
F-35C (Carrier Variant) URF – $10.9 M (BY 2012)

https://fas.org/man/eprint/F35-sar-2016.pdf

Not only will there be two F-35s at the show, they will be Australia’s first two F-35s (AU-1 and AU-2).

http://australianaviation.com.au/2017/02/raaf-f-35-growler-to-make-avalon-debuts/

But then again, if an attack jet(or F-35) dropped it, chances are the jet itself would be spotted first.

In a highly degraded environment with jamming coming from not only the F-35’s themselves but also MALD-J and NGJ, the chances of seeing the F-35 before it launches the SDB from 50nm+ is slightly above zero. That combined with alternate munitions like SPEAR3 (with NOE attack profiles), AARGM-ER, JSOW-ER (again with NOE), LRASM, etc will make defending said sites very difficult.

My personal favorite up-and-coming idea was to fly a VLO cruise missile at high altitude and drop a bunch of these over the AO.