In 2002, the Dutch government agreed to invest €858 million in developing the JSF, “on condition that it would not cost more than buying an aircraft off the shelf”, with significant offsets to the local aerospace industry.

As a part of this contract, the Dutch aerospace industry agreed to cover any shortfalls in funding, but this number has grown signifantly from the €191 estimated in 2002, and inudstry wants to renegotiate the deal, claiming that, “financial benefits of the project are now far greater than originally thought and that the deal will benefit the taxpayer at the industry’s expense”.

Basically, they are saying that are getting hosed by cost escalation on the project, which is almost certainly true, and it will be getting a lot worse if the program continues in its current form.