F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Lightning II Program
| Lot 12 | Lot 13 | Lot 14 | % Reduction from Lot 11 | |
| F-35A | $82.4M | $79.2M | $77.9M | 12.8% |
| F-35B | $108.0M | $104.8M | $101.3M | 12.3% |
| F-35C | $103.1M | $98.1M | $94.4M | 13.2% |
Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, who runs the F-35 program for the Pentagon, gave new estimates for the future cost of the jet at a US House of Representatives hearing 16 February 2017. In late January 2017, the Pentagon agreed to a deal for the tenth batch of the fighter aircraft at below $95 million per jet for the first time, compared with $102 million in the previous purchase. The unit cost of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 stealth fighter jet could fall 16 percent to around $80 million in future purchases.
Lockheed Martin trimmed about $600 million in cost from its next Pentagon contract for F-35 fighter jets, Trump said 30 January 2017, telling reporters that the program is now “in great shape.” Trump said the savings applied to the next lot of 90 planes, which the two sides had been negotiating for months. “I appreciate Lockheed Martin for being so responsive,” he said. Trump said, “We’ve ended all of that. We’ve got that program really, really now in great shape.”
In a statement, Lockheed said: “We appreciate President Trump’s comments this morning on the positive progress we’ve made on the F-35 program. We share his commitment to delivering this critical capability for our men and women in uniform at the lowest possible cost to taxpayers.”
Richard Aboulafia, a military aircraft analyst with the Teal Group, scoffed at the idea that Trump had anything to do with the cost reduction. He told the Fort Worth Star Telegram there had been an F-35 budget plan in place for years and the only difference is that Trump is now taking credit for it. “Heaven help us if Trump actually believes that nonsense,” Aboulafia said. “He is taking credit for something that has been in the works for quite some time.”
The head of Air Combat Command expressed concern with the current F-35 buy rate plan, cautioning the need to build up the military branch’s fighter jet inventory at a fast pace in order to prepare for the global security threats of tomorrow, but Air Force civilian chief signaled that there is simply not enough money to field the desired fleet of warplanes. In an interview August 6, 2016 with Air Force Times , Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James dashed hopes that the military branch would acquire F-35s at a faster rate than the current plan saying that boosting the number of active-duty airmen is the primary priority at this time. "It’s all a matter of money. I would love to buy also, but I don’t see that as more urgent than staying the course to increase our end strength," said Secretary James. "Increasing that end strength is the top thing. We think it’s the top thing for all our senior leaders."
Gen. Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, the Commander of Air Combat Command, disagreed with his civilian counterpart’s assessment telling reporters that he was concerned about the service’s F-35 buy rate which hovers around 40 aircraft per year until fiscal year 2021 when the number jumps up to 60. Carlisle explained that the Air Force must buy at least 60 aircraft per year in the near term to replace defective or obsolete warplanes. "I need more [F-35s] sooner to replace legacy airplanes and airplanes that are going to require money to do service life extension and do capability increases if I don’t replace them with the F-35," he said. "So I would like to see the numbers go up to at least 60 if I can. 80 would be optimal, but given the fiscal constraints that we’re in today, 80 would be very, very hard to get."
The conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, released a report on 04 August 2016 siding with Gen. Hawk Carlisle calling for the Air Force to procure its full 1,763-aircraft program of record throughout the life of the program and noting that once full-rate production begins the aircraft’s price tag will lower becoming cost-competitive with similar fighter jets. "The Air Force is currently deferring the purchase/cashing in on F-35As to pay for other critical needs that have gone unfunded or underfunded by Congress," said John Venable, the senior defense fellow who wrote the report. "That practice needs to end immediately."
US President-elect Donald Trump tweeted on 12 December 2016 that the cost of F-35 fighter plane is too high, saying the "program and cost is out of control." Trump wrote on Twitter "The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th". Lockheed Martin builds the F-35. The market value of Lockheed Martin dropped 4 billion dollars in early trading after Trump's tweet. F-35's cost had risen to 400 billion dollars to produce 2,457 planes -- nearly twice the estimated cost, according to a CNN report in 2016. More than 1,000 planes were to have been delivered by 2016, but only 179 had been sent as of April 2016.
"Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!" the president-elect tweeted 22 December 2016. But the F/A-18E/F model lacks stealth and other high-tech capabilities of the F-35. There is no "comparable" F/A-18 in terms of stealth and electronics capability.
Trump’s comments were “bizarre,” Richard Aboulafia, a military aircraft analyst with the Teal Group, said. “The Navy remains the only U.S. customer for the Super Hornet, while the Marines are completely dependent on F-35Bs and the Air Force is sticking with the F-35A,” he said. “Thus, Trump’s tweet is both late to the game and completely irrelevant.... this very strange tweet was based on events that have long been decided and has no impact on events moving forward...."
Conceivably, this "switch" could end the Navy's buy of 340 F-35Cs. However, it could also increase cost on the remaining models and force other buyers to reconsider purchases and collapse the program. Luke Coffey, a former special adviser to UK defence secretary Liam Fox, told The Sun: "If the US cancels the STOVL variant of F-35, it would be an absolute betrayal of the US-UK Special Relationship."
Lockheed Martin's CEO gave President-elect Donald Trump her "personal commitment" to cut the cost of the F-35 fighter. Marillyn Hewson said : "I had a very good conversation with President-elect Trump this afternoon and assured thim that I've heard his message loud and clear about reducing the cost of the F-35. I gave him my personal commitment to drive the cost down aggressively. I know that President-elect Trump wants the very best capability for our military at the lowest cost for taxpayers, and we're ready to deliver!"
Trump said during a press conference on 11 January 2017 he will work to lower the cost of the most expensive weapons program in US history, the F-35 combat jet program. "[The F-35 program] is way, way behind schedule and many, many billions of dollars over budget," Trump said of the jet produced by US defense contractor Lockheed Martin. "We’re going to get those costs way down, we’re going to get the plane to be even better and we’re going to have some competition."
Pierre Sprey, arch-deacon of "Fighter Mafia" that produced the F-16 design, called the F-35 a "hopelessly ineffective airplane," saying, "I applaud what Trump said. It was entirely correct, it’s been true for years. Whether he can deliver on that remains to be seen. The military industrial complex has enormous power to keep the money flowing, but we will see." Sprey pointed out that just the purchase price of the jets will cost American taxpayers some $400 billion, and that by the end of the F-35’s lifespan the program will have cost an estimated $1.5 trillion.
"I would suspect that he has some advisors that know something about defense and the F-35 has been the leading scandal in the entire defense budget for 10 years.” Sprey stated 01 January 2017. “Remember, this is the world’s largest military procurement program ever. Completely dwarfs the development of the atomic bomb, the development of intercontinental missiles, nothing has ever cost as much."
"It’s lot of money for something that not only doesn’t work, but actually harms American airpower." Sprey detailed, "For every F-35 you buy, you’re foregoing the opportunity to upgrade and refurbish existing fighters that work far better right now than the F-35 will ever work. You could upgrade five fighters for every F-35 you buy."
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is vital to maintain US and allied air superiority, Secretary of Defense nominee Gen. James Mattis said in confirmation hearings before the US Senate on 12 January 2017. “The F-35 is critical for our own air superiority, because of its electronics capability inherent to the airplane, which magnifies each individual aircraft's capability,” Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It is equally important and more so to our allies, because this will be the total strength of their Air Force.... Many of our allies have bet their security on the F-35,” he said.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis directed 26 January 2017 reviews of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and the Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization program. Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the purpose of the reviews is “to inform programmatic and budgetary decisions, recognizing the critical importance of each of these acquisition programs.”
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis sent two memoranda for Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work to review the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program to "determine opportunities to significantly reduce the cost of the F-35 program while meeting requirements," according to RT's Viktor Astafyev. Mattis also directed Work to compare the capabilities and costs of the stealthy F-35 fighter jet to the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, to determine what improvements can be made "to provide a competitive, cost effective, fighter aircraft alternative."
The cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will be reduced by some $600 million, Donald Trump said in a press conference at the Oval Office on 30 January 2017. "We are cutting prices…$600 million off F-35 fighter, and that only amounts to 19 planes," Trump stated. Trump noted he appreciated that Lockheed Martin, the US defense contractor in charge of the F-35 program, was responsive on the issue of cutting costs. Trump further said that another defense contractor, Boeing, will be competing for delivery of other aircraft from the order. "I appreciate Boeing for coming in and competing… Now they will be competing during the process for the rest of the planes," Trump added.
On 30 December 2022 the F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin finalized the contract for the production and delivery for up to 398 F-35s for $30 billion, including U.S., international partners and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) aircraft in Lots 15 and 16, with the option for Lot 17. "The F-35 delivers unsurpassed capability to our warfighters and operational commanders," said Air Force Lt. Gen. Mike Schmidt, program executive officer, F-35 Joint Program Office. "This contract strikes the right balance between what's best for the U.S. taxpayers, military services, allies and our foreign military sales customers. The F-35 is the world's premier multi-mission, 5th-generation weapon system, and the modernized Block 4 capabilities these new aircraft will bring to bear strengthens not just capability, but interoperability with our allies and partners across land, sea, air and cyber domains."
The agreement includes 145 aircraft for Lot 15, 127 for Lot 16, and up to 126 for the Lot 17 contract option, including the first F-35 aircraft for Belgium, Finland and Poland. Lot 15-17 aircraft will be the first to include Technical Refresh-3 (TR-3), the modernized hardware needed to power Block 4 capabilities. TR-3 includes a new integrated core processor with greater computing power, a panoramic cockpit display and an enhanced memory unit. These aircraft will add to the growing global fleet, currently at 894 aircraft after 141 deliveries this year. The F-35 team was on track to meet the commitment of 148 aircraft as planned; however, due to a temporary pause in flight operations, which is still in effect, necessary acceptance flight tests could not be performed.
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