Air Warfare
Defense bill for 2025 would delay F-35 deliveries

By Stephen Losey
Dec 10, 2024 at 03:45 PM


Congress is set to cut the number of Lockheed Martin-made F-35s the military wants to buy in 2025 from 68 to 58 under this year’s defense authorization bill. (Airman Belinda Guachun-Chichay/U.S. Air Force)

Correction: This article has been updated with the correct number of F-35s the NDAA would allow the military to purchase, and how many jets would not be delivered immediately.

Congress is set to allow the military to buy 68 Lockheed Martin-made F-35s in 2025, under this year’s defense authorization bill — but would prevent the Pentagon from accepting 20 of those jets until it shows how it plans to fix several problems with the Joint Strike Fighter program.

The proposed National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2025, which lawmakers released Saturday would allow the Air Force to buy and accept delivery of 30 F-35As. The Marine Corps would get nine F-35Bs, which are the short takeoff and vertical landing variant of the jet, and the Navy and Marine Corps would get nine F-35Cs that can land on an aircraft carrier. The Pentagon’s original budget proposal for 2025, released in March, asked for 42 F-35As, 13 F-35Bs and 13 F-35Cs.

Lawmakers have grown increasingly impatient with the F-35 program, as problems with its Technology Refresh 3 upgrades led to a delivery halt in July 2023 that stretched on for about a year, as newly built jets piled up at Lockheed’s factory in Fort Worth, Texas.

The newest F-35s are now being delivered with an interim version of the TR-3 software and can fly combat training missions, but will not be able to fly in combat until 2025. The military is now withholding about $5 million per jet in payments to Lockheed until the new F-35s are combat-capable.

{snip}