An F-35A Lightning II from Eglin Air Force Base flies with a KC-135 Stratotanker from the 121st Air Refueling Wing, June 16, 2024, before the Columbus Air Show. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Mikayla Gibbs)
The F35 is a disaster and I have written about it endlessly here.
The drama continues.
But the F-35A remains the cheapest and least complex variant of the three. The F-35B—the short takeoff and vertical landing variant flown by the Marine Corps—is the most expensive and complicated, given its unique swiveling engine nozzle and hovering capabilities. And the F-35C, flown by both the Marine Corps and the Navy, is closer in price to the F-35B and has bigger wings than the F-35A to help with carrier landings, as well as folding wingtips to help with storage in close quarters.
The revelation of the price tags for the F-35s’ upcoming lots—the highest in the nearly $2 trillion program’s history—follows the Pentagon’s release of a modernized selected acquisition report which said the total estimated acquisition cost for the F-35, including both airframes and engines, had grown more than 10 percent to $536.2 billion.
Don’t believe any of these numbers because inevitably it will be
The JPO and Lockheed Martin in September 2025 struck a final “definitized” deal for Lots 18 and 19, which would buy 296 fighters for nearly $24.3 billion. That deal was for just the airframe and did not include engine costs, meaning the average cost of just the airframe across all variants will be $82.4 million.
Block 4 is that refresh, scaled up of roughly 55 upgrades: sharper sensors, a rebuilt electronic-warfare suite, and a long list of new weapons. Taken together, it was pitched as something close to doubling the F-35’s combat punch. It won’t, it will simply make it more complex and prone to failure cascades. To make it work, the jet first needs a hardware foundation called Technology Refresh 3 — new processors and displays without which none of the new tricks will run.
They are promising 2031 and don’t believe that, it will continue to shift expenses vertically and the schedule will shift. And remember, these are all software upgrades that have the shelf life of a year at the top and make a very fragile platform that in the end is not designed for combat so much as an expensive merry-go-round to curry favor with congressional districts and spend other people’s money.
The gory details of this nonsense can be found here.
And here.
Oh, and remember:
“The F-35 Lightning II program purposefully benefits 307 congressional districts across the United States, By spreading supply chain jobs and billions of dollars in economic footprint across nearly 70% of all 435 U.S. House districts (spanning up to 49 states), the program guarantees deep, bipartisan support in Congress.”
See here.
