The massive Joint Strike Fighter project is going to be delayed and cost more, the US Deputy Secretary of Defence Bill Lynn says.

But Mr Lynn could not say by how much the cost overruns and delays would increase the price tag for the Australian government, which in November committed $3 billion to buy an initial batch of 14 yet-to-be-completed F-35 warplanes. Australia plans eventually to purchase 100 of the fifth-generation stealth warplanes at a cost of about $16 billion.

“The development was originally projected to last an additional 30 months, we think with the additional test aircraft it will be closer to a delay of about 12 or 13 months but I can’t give you the cost numbers,” Mr Lynn said today during the official opening of a $300 million shipbuilding precinct in South Australia.

Earlier this month Defence Minister John Faulkner said he hoped a restructuring of the JSF program would “stabilise its schedule and cost”.

Mr Lynn said the Obama administration wanted to get the project right.

“When we looked at it as we came into office last year, we thought that some of the costs were underestimated in terms of production, and we thought that development was going to last longer than was originally projected,” Mr Lynn said.

“We have now recosted the production to, we think, a better estimate, and we have taken the development and tried to strengthen it with some additional test aircraft so that we can get it closer to the original schedule.

“We think with those steps it will continue on its path to be the backbone of tactical aviation for both the United States and hopefully Australia.

“The development was definitely going to cost more and the unit costs have gone up. But the important thing was to get it right and budget it right, and that is what we have done.”

Mr Lynn was joined by US Ambassador to Australia, Jeffrey Bleich, and South Australian Premier Mike Rann for the opening of the Techport facility, which includes a common user facility with the largest ship lift in the southern hemisphere.

Techport forms a precinct with ASC, the Maritime Skills Centre and industrial park for suppliers. The adjoining ASC yard was opened in January with its own $120 million shipyard.

The precinct will build 12 next-generation submarines and the Royal Australian Navy’s new air warfare destroyers.

But Mr Rann, who goes to the polls on March 20, stressed the exciting aspect of the precinct was its “ongoing nature … this is not just about the $8 billion air warfare destroyer project”.

“This is going to be the site of a whole series of projects, some of which can be built simultaneously,” he said.

“The state has won $44 billion worth of defence projects in the past five or six years.

“Great US companies like Ratheon, Lockheed have located to South Australia. “This is all about a vision to make South Australia the defence industry hub of our nation and that vision becomes a reality today.”