Costly, Overvalued, and Fragile: The "Black Hole" of the U.S. Air Force
F-35 Fighter Jet. Source: U.S. Department of Defense
Beneath the marketing efforts by Lockheed Martin for its fifth-generation multirole fighter, the F-35 "Lightning II," lies a project burdened with astronomical costs, persistent technical defects, and continuous compromises in performance.
These issues have led to the F-35 being overvalued, with its price far exceeding the performance it actually delivers. This conclusion was drawn by Brandon J. Weichert, senior editor for national security at The National Interest, last weekend.
For this reason, claims that the F-35 and the F-22 (considered the more advanced of the two, developed by a joint venture of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and General Dynamics) would be used in any potential war involving the U.S. and China over Taiwan's separation from China have drawn more ridicule than fear from Chinese leadership. The article's author points out that they are well aware that the F-35 is severely overvalued.
The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program is the most ambitious weapons project ever undertaken by the U.S. Department of Defense. However, at the same time, the F-35 faces rising costs and delivery delays, leading some Western experts to say that the amount invested in the project so far exceeds $2 trillion, with the cost being "shocking."
The JSF program started in the early 21st century, aiming to replace the increasingly outdated fourth-generation U.S. fighter fleet with a single, versatile platform. Initial estimates suggested the total cost of the project would be around $20 billion. However, the reality has been far more severe.
Two years ago, in 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal oversight agency, stated that the total cost of the entire project, including the procurement, operation, and technical maintenance of the F-35, would approach $1.7 trillion by 2023. Considering the ongoing delays in the endless modernization of the fighter, subsequent analyses have significantly raised this number to over $2 trillion.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Defense in March 2024, the F-35 reached a "significant milestone" - entering full production, which usually means that its production efficiency and reliability have reached an acceptable level, allowing for faster assembly of new fighters. In fact, the production of this fighter has been running at full speed for several years. However, at the same time, the U.S. military forces using the F-35 (the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps) have plans to reduce its use.
The U.S. Department of Defense previously launched a $1.65 billion modernization plan, which aims to grant the F-35 new capabilities through hardware and software upgrades, including improvements in radar, weapon systems, and anti-collision technology. Some of these features depend on technological updates planned to be implemented in July 2023. However, due to software operational stability issues, the implementation of these updates has been delayed.
Around the same time (May 2023), the F-35 program was in the initial stages of planning for modernization of the fighter's engine and thermal management system. These efforts were necessary to provide additional power to the aircraft and prevent systems such as radar from overheating. However, as these projects progressed, some problems emerged because the U.S. military had not yet fully determined the power and cooling requirements needed for the engine and related systems to meet the future performance needs of the fighter. Additionally, the Pentagon has not assessed the costs and some technical risks associated with the new engines. These are just two examples of modernization delays that have significantly increased the cost of the F-35.
As a result, the expected maintenance costs of the fighter have continued to rise steadily (from $1.1 trillion in 2018 to $1.58 trillion five years later, a 44% increase). At the same time, the cost increase is partly due to the extension of the aircraft's service life from 2077, as originally estimated in 2018, to 2088, as estimated in 2023.
Weichert pointed out that the F-35 is an example that shows how "unrestrained ambitions, bureaucratic inertia, and corporate interests can evolve into a financial black hole, siphoning resources away from more practical defense solutions."
This aircraft was developed as an ambitious project, under the marketing slogan of "one size fits all," intended to give the United States and its selected military allies and partners an advantage over competitors, but it has largely failed to meet the huge expectations people had for it.
Trying to create an air platform suitable for three types of operations - including vertical takeoff and landing, carrier-based, and conventional use - has inevitably led to a surge in costs and brought about safety issues. A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in 2023 detailed at least 12 F-35 accidents in the Joint Strike Fighter program since 2018, exacerbating the already serious reliability issues of the aircraft. The most recent incident of losing this most expensive fighter in non-combat conditions occurred on July 31, when an F-35 belonging to the U.S. Navy crashed near the Lemon Creek Air Force Base in central California.
Overruns not only burden the U.S. budget, but also affect international partners. A recent report by Canada's Auditor General showed that the country overspent by $8 billion on the F-35s it was about to purchase (Canadians had previously ordered 88 "35-type" fighters). Now, there is serious doubt that Ottawa may completely abandon the F-35 and opt for European-produced 4.5-generation fighters. Especially considering the trade tensions between the two North American economies have intensified after former President Donald Trump initiated a "tariff war."
"Of course, part of the responsibility for this shift can be attributed to President Trump, who provocatively called on Canada to join the U.S. But the real culprit is the bloated U.S. defense industry, which often deceives its clients regardless of their political views or nationality," Weichert said.
Weichert claimed.
Before the F-35 came into existence, Lockheed Martin promised that this fighter would become the "peak of military aviation" with its "adaptability." In reality, this meant that major compromises had to be made between different models, which erased the expected advantages of the aircraft in air combat and ground attack capabilities.
For example, critics have long mocked the F-35's small wings, which were optimized for the cramped hangars of U.S. nuclear-powered carriers, but negatively affected the plane's speed and maneuverability. In simulated air combat, the F-35 performed worse than the U.S. Air Force's recognized old aircraft, such as the F-16. It even lacks the maneuverability of dedicated fighters, like the more advanced F-22 "Raptor" fighter jet.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office's 2024 report indicated that the readiness rate of the F-35 fleet deployed by the U.S. was only 30%. The main cost of the F-35 is related to daily operations. The costs of maintaining the fighter's readiness have risen rapidly. Similarly, in 2024, the U.S. Government Accountability Office emphasized that despite maintenance issues reducing the planned usage of the aircraft, the related costs continue to increase. In the past fiscal year, this forced the U.S. military to spend nearly 7% more on operations and technical maintenance.
Additionally, this technically "complex" fighter appears to be extremely vulnerable to even the simplest weapons. While visiting an airbase on the U.S. West Coast (where a large number of F-35s are deployed), Weichert was told that a sniper with a .50-caliber rifle monitoring the base could disable the planes parked on the runway with just a few precise shots before they took off. It turns out that this fighter jet, worth about $200 million or more (depending on the model), is almost defenseless on the ground if a sniper effectively operates...
After the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, the Jewish state's military command claimed that their F-35I "Adir" fighter jets dominated Iranian airspace. As a result, they placed a large order with Lockheed Martin, effectively injecting new vitality into the company's stable production line. However, only a few Western analysts dared to deeply examine the Israeli Air Force's statements about the F-35I. That is to say: what were they actually used for?
Evidently, the Israelis relied more on pre-war destruction of key facilities in Iran, drone attacks (some of which are reportedly from the territory of neighboring Azerbaijan), and remote weapons used from relatively safe distances in neighboring Iraq. These remote weapons can easily be used from cheaper fourth-generation fighter jets.
Compared to 4.5-generation counterparts in Europe, the overvaluation of the F-35 becomes even more apparent. For example, Sweden's Saab JAS 39E "Gripen" offers advanced avionics and lower maintenance costs (only $4,700 per flight hour). Fighters like the F-22, which are specialized for air superiority, outperform the F-35, while drones represent a cheaper future for operations.
The F-35 is far from being as revolutionary as its supporters claim. With the cost of the Joint Strike Fighter program rising to $2 trillion or more, the constantly discovered defects and the crash incidents that plague the fighter, it is draining the U.S. budget and causing serious vulnerabilities in the already fragile national defense system. Rather than investing huge amounts of money into this overvalued and inefficient fifth-generation fighter, the funds should be used to update cheaper drone systems. As global tensions escalate, Weichert concludes, "The legacy of the F-35 should serve as a warning: unrestrained ambitions lead to financial madness, not world hegemony."
It is worth noting that billionaire Elon Musk was once seen as one of Donald Trump's main advisors in the high-tech field and briefly took charge of cutting government spending in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) established for this purpose. He criticized the F-35 project last November, calling the fighter obsolete in the era of drones. This ardent supporter of Trump posted a video of relevant national drones on the X social media platform, accompanied by the text: "Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets, like the F-35."
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7534642964586103315/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author and readers are welcome to express their opinions by clicking on the [Up/Down] buttons below.