AURORA, Colo.—The unit price for the latest lot of the F-35 fighter will come in below the rate of inflation, Lockheed Martin’s manager for the program said March 3. The disclosure came on the same day Lockheed and Pratt & Whitney announced that the F-35 and its F135 engine have each surpassed 1 million flight hours.
“We were able to keep the price of the airplane … under that inflation curve,” Chauncey McIntosh, Lockheed vice president and F-35 general manager, told reporters at the AFA Warfare Symposium. He did not, however, disclose the price of the F-35 airframe reached with the Joint Program Office.
The JPO and Lockheed reached a “handshake deal” on Lot 18 in November 2024 valued at $11.8 billion and covering 145 aircraft. In addition to the aircraft, that deal covers spares, engineering, and other items but not the engine. The JPO has said it will announce the airframe unit cost when the contract is finalized, which McIntosh said would come in the second quarter of 2025.
The JPO also tends to announce F-35 costs with the engine included. The F135 engine is provided to Lockheed as government-furnished equipment.
As yet, there’s no handshake deal on Lot 18 engines. Industry and government sources said the JPO and Pratt are still far apart on a price and predict a deal much later in the year.
The previous lot’s contract had the F-35A price at $75 million per airframe, without the engine. The F135 powerplant is believed to cost around $15 million; Pratt has said it considers the actual figure proprietary. Industry sources said a unit cost of around $97 million—averaged across all three variants—is in the ballpark of the final cost for a engined F-35 in Lot 18.
“Inflation has skyrocketed,” McIntosh said, noting a sharp increase in the cost of materials needed to build the F-35. Company officials have also cited labor rates and supply chain difficulties as contributing to higher costs.
“I’m really proud that working with our government customers, working with our supply base, we’ve really been able to keep the price of the airplane under that inflation curve,” McIntosh said. The finalized contract is now the “milestone that we’re shooting towards.”
The cost of the F-35 is especially sensitive right now. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tasked organizations across the Pentagon with identifying eight percent of possible budget cuts that could be used to fund other priorities, and he did not exempt the F-35 from the move. Presidential adviser Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency commission, has criticized the program as obsolete because he believes autonomous combat air vehicles can do the job at less cost.
Trump intervened in the F-35 program in 2017, pressing Lockheed to lower costs and hire more workers. The program was already headed in that direction at the time because production volume was starting to ramp up.
1 Million
Lockheed and Pratt & Whitney separately announced March 3 that the F-35 fleet and its F135 engines, respectively, have attained 1 million hours of operations. The milestone was achieved across all variants of the fighter. The F-35A is a conventional takeoff and landing aircraft; the B model is capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings, and the C model is carrier-capable.
“Reaching one million flight hours is a monumental achievement for the F-35 program,” said Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, program executive officer for the F-35 and head of the JPO. “It highlights the unwavering dedication of our pilots, maintainers, industry partners and our international partners and foreign military sales customers.”
The milestone is a testament to the “F-35’s unmatched capability” and “the resilience and commitment of everyone involved in this program,” Schmidt added.
Lockheed noted that the 1 million hours includes those flown by the Navy in the F-35C’s first combat missions, against Houthi rebels in Yemen in November 2024, “successfully striking targets in contested airspace.”
The F-35 team is “now focused on the next 1 million hours to be flown by the growing global fleet of more than 1,100 jets, ensuring the F-35 maintains its air superiority role and remains the cornerstone of air dominance as it works in tandem with other 4th, 5th and next-gen platforms,” Lockheed said in a press release. “This includes the capability to control drones, including the U.S. Air Force’s future fleet of Collaborative Combat Aircraft.”
Pratt, in its own press release, noted that the F135 engine “has powered the F-35 since its first flight in 2006. Achieving this milestone in under two decades is a testament to the engine’s performance and reliability.” Pratt noted that more than 1,300 F135 production engines have been delivered, and “it has an unmatched safety record.”
Pratt received a $1.4 billion contract last fall for the Engine Core Upgrade (ECU), which will improve the F135 to provide additional power and electricity required for the F-35 Block 4 upgrade.
In achieving the million-hour milestone, “the F135 has established itself as the safest, most capable and reliable fighter engine, delivering superior performance and advanced low-observable technologies for the fifth-generation fighter,” Pratt said in a release.
“Accomplishing this milestone in under two decades demonstrates how critical the F-35 remains and highlights Pratt & Whitney’s commitment to our customer and the warfighter,” said Jill Albertelli, Pratt’s president of military engines.
Twenty countries have either bought or are set to buy the F-35. Some 2,900 pilots have been trained to fly the fighter worldwide.
