Why Lockheed Martin’s $2 Trillion F-35 Program Is so Expensive

Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighter is likely one of the most superior plane ever constructed — and the most costly, given what number of the US army plans to purchase.

By its scale and state-of-the-art expertise, it showcases the hovering prices America bears to construct weapons at a time its rivals can accomplish that extra cheaply, threatening the US’s edge.

The fighter jet program is anticipated to value $2.1 trillion over its lifetime by way of 2088, together with the deliberate manufacturing of over 2,400 jets by 2049.

Designed as a fifth-generation plane that may substitute a number of planes, perform a large range of missions, and avoid radar detection, the F-35 displays a broader shift towards extra advanced, pricey army expertise.

Sustainment drives many of the F-35’s $2 trillion worth

A single F-35 just isn’t the most expensive aircraft within the US arsenal — it is this system’s huge scale and projected 94-year lifespan that drive its value.

The F-15EX Eagle II, for instance, prices about $99 million for Boeing to supply, in contrast with roughly $90 million for the F-35. Different plane value way more. Every B-2 Spirit stealth bomber prices a mean of $2 billion.

Constructing the plane is barely a part of the overall worth. Nearly all of the F-35 program’s value comes after manufacturing.

Sustainment — the price of sustaining and repairing the plane over time — accounts for about 75% of this system’s whole estimated value, in accordance with a 2024 Authorities Accountability Workplace report.

Maintaining fight jets flying is inherently costly, and a significant driver is the spare components wanted to maintain plane mission-ready.

That requires a relentless movement of alternative elements — and demand solely grows because the jet accumulates put on and “lifecycle harm,” Paul Saunier, a retired Lockheed Martin engineer who labored on the F-35, instructed Enterprise Insider.

As a result of sustainment stretches over a long time, the necessity for components — and the logistics programs to ship them — compounds over time, steadily pushing up the program’s total cost.

As an illustration, sustainment estimates elevated from about $1.1 trillion in 2018 to roughly $1.58 trillion in 2023, in accordance with the GAO, which attributed a part of the rise to the longer interval of flying for every plane. With every plane nonetheless nicely above the original sustainment target — $4.1 million for every Air Drive aircraft — the anticipated value to maintain the fleet flying grows as extra F-35s enter the US army’s flight strains.

A Lockheed Martin spokesperson instructed Enterprise Insider over e mail that the corporate has labored to carry these prices down. Whereas the associated fee to maintain your entire fleet flying has elevated, the annual sustainment prices per plane have truly fallen by roughly one-third over the previous decade.

Structural value pressures stay

Elements themselves are costly, partially as a result of they arrive from a restricted pool of approved suppliers.

These producers are sometimes tied to the US protection industrial base, the place manufacturing prices are structurally higher, in addition to different superior economies just like the UK, Australia, and Canada.

American factories depend on higher-paid labor and face persistent employee shortages, which may push wages up additional or sluggish manufacturing — each of which elevate the worth of components. Within the US alone, F-35 manufacturing helps an estimated 317,000 jobs.

Furthermore, in contrast to shopper merchandise like iPhones and metal, protection contractors cannot simply shift manufacturing to the lowest-cost producers abroad, since US legislation requires prioritizing US-made gadgets; these selections are additionally pushed by nationwide safety considerations. Elements for the F-35, for instance, are produced within the US and within the international locations of shut allies authorised to purchase them.

Scale additionally issues. The F-35 fleet is roughly 25 occasions bigger than the F-15EX program and consists of three totally different variants, serving to drive its projected lifetime sustainment value to over a trillion, in contrast with about $63 billion for the F-15EX.

The F-35 can also be produced at a far increased price than different Western fighter packages. Lockheed Martin delivers on common 150 jets yearly, whereas opponents like Boeing’s F-15EX, Dassault’s Rafale, and the Eurofighter Storm produce just a few dozen jets per 12 months.

Lockheed Martin’s function in repairs attracts consideration from lawmakers

A 2025 GAO report discovered that the US army could not have the information rights wanted to carry out upkeep actions with out a certified contractor.

As a result of Lockheed Martin owns key mental property for the F-35, the federal government should depend on the corporate for some upkeep work, together with software diagnostics and engine repairs.

“The very last thing our troops needs to be doing is ready round for contractors who cost extra for slower repairs,” US Military veteran and Congressman Pat Ryan instructed Enterprise Insider.

Lawmakers from each events wish to handle the difficulty. In July 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tim Sheehy launched the Warrior Right to Repair Act, which might give the army entry to weapons programs knowledge and mental property.

“It is giving management again to the army, in the end again to the American folks and taxpayers, that if we purchase one thing, we should always be capable of repair it,” stated Ryan, who serves on the Home Armed Providers Committee, which oversees the nation’s annual protection finances.

The efficiency of IP-sharing could depend upon the kind of restore. Airmen would seemingly be capable of carry out extra diagnostic assessments, for instance, however that is a far cry from quickly fabricating a complicated element, like a jet engine. The US authorities lacks its personal in-house capability to fabricate superior jet engines, relying as a substitute on specialised protection contractors like Pratt & Whitney, the prime contractor of the F-35’s highly effective engine.

A Lockheed Martin spokesperson wrote that authorities clients have already got entry to the information wanted to function and keep the F-35 globally, and that it’s working with the Protection Division’s Joint Program Workplace to broaden entry to analytics instruments, together with predictive modeling, to enhance upkeep effectivity. The corporate added that it has invested greater than $2 billion in latest spending to spice up capabilities and readiness throughout the fleet.

How a long time of coverage formed right this moment’s prices

The F-35’s worth displays an extended shift in how the US builds weapons.

Throughout World Struggle II, the US relied on mass manufacturing, together with the speedy conversion of factories to wartime merchandise like tanks and parachutes. A B-17 bomber value about $200,000 in 1944 — roughly $3.5 million right this moment (a far cry from the $100 million price ticket for an F-35).

Factories like Henry Ford’s Willow Run plant produced plane at scale, typically as shortly as one bomber per hour. It takes around 18 months to produce an F-35 jet right this moment.

That mannequin drastically shifted after the warfare. As weapons turned extra advanced through the Chilly Struggle, the main target shifted from amount towards superior capabilities, driving up manufacturing prices. And as US corporations consolidated, many got here to focus wholly or largely on authorities purchasers fairly than on industrial ones.

Because the Chilly Struggle ended, political strain to chop army spending grew and the huge standing power started to shrink. By 1997, main contractors had been pressured to consolidate from 51 to 5: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon (now RTX), Boeing, Basic Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman.

Paradoxically, this drove increased prices for weapons. On this system, the highest contractors gained near-monopolies over complete lessons of weapons: Bombers, submarines, plane carriers, and intercontinental ballistic missiles. “You may think that this leaves the federal government ready of little leverage,” Shelby Oakley, director within the GOA’s Contracting and Nationwide Safety Acquisitions division, instructed Enterprise Insider.

Trendy weapons packages additionally face delays. Early projections anticipated the F-35’s first supply in 2008, however the plane was not delivered till 2011.

Extra just lately, in 2023, F-35 deliveries have been a mean of 61 days late and grew to 238 days in 2024, largely resulting from a software program holdup. Lockheed Martin resolved the difficulty the next 12 months and, in 2025, delivered a file 191 planes, which included the earlier backlog.

As protection spending continues to develop, the controversy just isn’t solely about how a lot the US spends, however how that cash interprets into tools, timelines, and long-term worth for taxpayers and repair members.