By Francis Kapper
The Pentagon struck a massive agreement Thursday to procure at least 850 F-35 stealth fighters over the next decade.
The preliminary agreement with Lockheed Martin would establish a decade-long production framework for the advanced fighters, which military experts say are essential to penetrating enemy air defenses and confronting increasingly capable Chinese and Russian aircraft. However, the Pentagon has not publicly disclosed a price tag for the ambitious procurement effort, which includes billions in private investment and remains subject to congressional funding, according to the Department of War.
The massive F-35 agreement arrives as Lockheed Martin is enjoying record-breaking business, with its order backlog soaring 27% in the third quarter to an all-time high of nearly $292 billion. The defense contractor also reported an 11% increase in quarterly sales to $20.7 billion and a 14% jump in net earnings to approximately $1.8 billion, according to its Oct. 22 earnings report.
A single F-35A stealth fighter costs approximately $82.5 million, while the Marine Corps’ F-35B costs roughly $109 million and the carrier-capable vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) F-35C costs approximately $102.1 million, according to Lockheed Martin. Congress authorized approximately $12.32 billion for the F-35 program in the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), supporting the procurement of 47 aircraft and related program expenses, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Based on those figures, purchasing 850 F-35 fighters could cost approximately $70.1 billion on the low end if every aircraft were an F-35A, or $86.8 billion on the high end if every aircraft were a VTOL F-35C, using previously reported unit prices from Lockheed Martin.
Those estimates cover the aircraft alone, excluding spare parts, modifications, maintenance and other expenses, meaning the ultimate price tag could be substantially higher. The agreement covers additional international orders, spare parts, modifications and maintenance services, according to the company, which referred to its most recent press release when reached for comment.
The U.S. Air Force and the Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
“The F-35 is the most advanced and capable f
i
ghter in the world,” Steven Bucci, a former senior Pentagon official and visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Both the Russians and the Chinese know it is much more capable than their best fighters.”
“F-35s are able to penetrate environments with advanced air defense systems at lower relative risk, expanding commanders’ freedom of action and the target sets they can strike relative to earlier-generation fighters,” Jim Fein, a senior research associate for national security and the defense industrial base at the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF. “From a functional perspective, two key differentiators are that stealthier aircraft reduce the risk aircraft (and their pilots) are shot down and enable them to strike targets further inside contested airspace at lower relative risk.”
The defense contractor has committed to investing at least $7 billion of its own money into initiatives supporting the F-35 program.
“We have fundamentally changed how we stabilize the American defense industrial base to produce at speed and scale,” Under Secretary of Defense Michael Duffey said in a statement released by the Pentagon.
The massive procurement framework could also provide an economic windfall for American manufacturers. Lockheed claims the arrangement will support approximately 317,000 American jobs over the next decade, according to the company.
“Our industrial base continues to hold the edge in technologies needed to design stealthy aircraft, and it’s important to continuously invest to maintain that edge,” Mark Gunzinger, director of future concepts and capability assessments at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told the DCNF. “There’s a larger point here – China and Russia are also acquiring increasingly capable stealthy aircraft. They understand that stealth is, and will remain, a threshold requirement for an air force capable of fighting in highly contested environments.”
Unlike conventional fighter aircraft, stealth fighters are engineered to reduce the likelihood of detection by enemy radar. Their stealthy characteristics can help pilots operate in heavily defended airspace where traditional fighters would face greater risks, according to the Air Force.
“It’s about maintaining the edge, the advantage, in a continuous ‘hiders-finders’ competition, and we [the United States] have done so,” Gunzinger told the DCNF. “Some have pointed to advances in computing power and other technologies that have eroded or even eliminated the need for stealth. That’s nonsense—many of those same technologies, like increasing computing power, also increase the survivability and lethality of our stealthy aircraft.”
However, the ambitious expansion faces significant challenges.
The F-35 program has struggled with rising maintenance costs, parts shortages and declining aircraft readiness. The fleet’s mission-capable rate fell from 67% in fiscal year 2021 to just 44% in fiscal year 2025, according to a June Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
The same watchdog estimated that the Pentagon would need approximately $13.7 billion in additional funding through fiscal year 2031 to support its updated F-35 sustainment strategy, according to the GAO.
“Airpower remains a crucial element of America’s ability to secure national interests around the globe,” Douglas Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies at the Air & Space Forces Association, told the DCNF. “The current Air Force inventory is too old and too small—with the average aircraft age over three decades old. Inventories were cut in half after the Cold War. Given the combined threats of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, we face a number of concurrent threats. We must ensure our forces are modern and appropriately sized for those demands. That’s why more F-35s [are] so important.”
