00:00A formidable force in the sky, and a centerpiece of the U.S.'s military prowess,
00:05the Pentagon could be adding up to 85 Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters to its arsenal,
00:11with some shocking upgrades that seem straight out of science fiction.
00:15But is it worth the billion-dollar price tag and the supposed trillion-dollar maintenance expense?
00:20Here's everything you need to know.
00:22The F-35 Lightning II was conceived during the early 2000s
00:26as part of the Department of Defense's Joint Strike Fighter program.
00:30An initiative that charged leading U.S. aerospace manufacturers
00:33to develop the military's fifth-generation fighter jet.
00:37Lockheed Martin scored the military contract with its X-35 prototype,
00:41which was later developed into three distinctive variants of the F-35 Lightning II,
00:46the F-35A for the Air Force, the F-35B for the Marines, and the F-35C for the Navy.
00:52Each variant has different takeoff and landing capabilities that are tailored for each military branch.
00:58The F-35B, the most complicated of the three variants,
01:01according to a report from the Congressional Research Service, can even land vertically.
01:06And as the war in Iran continues to rage on, the Pentagon is looking to boost its F-35 procurement.
01:12As part of its record-setting $1.5 trillion budget request,
01:16the Pentagon requested a near-doubling of its F-35 request from last year,
01:21seeking 85 jets for a whopping $21.4 billion.
01:26But the single-seat jet with advanced stealth abilities that's been used extensively
01:30during Operation Epic Fury and Operation Southern Spear
01:34has an unfortunate complication, a soaring upfront and maintenance cost.
01:39According to Business Insider, although the F-35 isn't the most expensive aircraft
01:43in the military's back pocket, costing roughly $90 million per jet, the real expense is sustainment.
01:50According to the Department of Defense, the F-35 program will cost a staggering $2.1 trillion
01:55over its 94-year life cycle, up until its end in 2088.
02:00The figure which accounts for inflation would cover the full development of 2,456 aircrafts
02:07for all branches by 2049, and all the fuel, maintenance, and modifications needed
02:13to keep the fighter's wartime ready.
02:15According to a 2024 Government Accountability Office report,
02:19$1.58 trillion of the program's cost was estimated to be used solely for sustainment.
02:25According to a 2025 report from the Congressional Budget Office,
02:29the operating and support costs for F-35s has been steadily increasing since 2013.
02:35In 2023, F-35A's costs topped at $3.2 billion.
02:40And as all three variants age, their average full mission availability rates,
02:44the rate at which each aircraft can perform all of its mission capabilities, has also dipped.
02:50Jules Hurst III, who is working as the Undersecretary of War, said during the Pentagon's budget
02:55announcement in April that the War Department wanted to allocate more funding
02:58for F-35 spare parts to boost the jet's mission capability rate.
03:03Spare parts, are there billion-dollar increases in spare parts?
03:07There's a significant increase in spare parts across the entire department.
03:12Particularly in the F-35 though. We think that's been underfunded in the past as part of the budget.
03:22The Pentagon has portioned out funds to accelerate the installment of 200 Block 4 upgrade kits to the
03:29tune of $324 million, according to Aviation Week magazine.
03:34Lockheed Martin wrote in 2024 that Block 4 includes more than 70 major upgrades,
03:39including increased missile carriage capacity, non-kinetic electronic warfare upgrades,
03:44and enhanced target recognition.
03:46And in a scene out of what could be a science fiction film,
03:50F-35 pilots are even now using unmanned drones as their wingmen in the sky.
03:55In January, Defense News reported that F-35 Navy pilots had finished up being trained to control
04:00several unmanned drones from a touch screen tablet in the comfort of their cockpits.
04:06The drones, referred to as Collaborative Combat Aircrafts or CCAs, are powered by jet engines
04:12and can engage in a number of operations.
04:15Everything from air-to-air combat to surveillance and reconnaissance.
04:19At a panel during the Sea, Air and Space Expo in April and reported by The War Zone,
04:24Marine Colonel Dan Webbers said the vision for the F-35 and CCA partnership was for quote,
04:30the F-35 to be a quarterback and the CCAs as the quote, attributable mass.
04:35But the jet hasn't been without its apparent faults.
04:38In March, shocking reports surfaced that Iran had allegedly damaged an F-35,
04:43forcing the jet to make an emergency landing at a U.S. base in the Middle East.
04:48Sources told Air and Space Forces magazine that the F-35 pilot suffered shrapnel wounds
04:53during the surprise attack and was most likely targeted by a surface-to-air missile.
04:58Unconfirmed video was also shared on social media by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
05:04reportedly showing the jet being targeted.
05:06Designed for its stealth and advanced radar technology, there have been zero confirmed
05:10cases of an F-35 being hit by enemy firepower since it deployed in combat in 2018, according to Al
05:16Jazeera.
05:17A U.S. Central Command spokesperson confirmed to Anna Deleu that the F-35 was forced
05:22to make an emergency landing, but stopped short of confirming if the jet was damaged by Iranian fire.
05:28Although it's still unclear what allegedly damaged the F-35, Iran's surface-to-air defense
05:33capabilities came into focus when the country shot down an F-15E at the beginning of April,
05:39which prompted a daring rescue mission.
05:41Experts shared differing opinions on what could have been used to neutralize the jet.
05:46The New York Times reported that the besieged Islamic Republic could have used a third
05:50Kordad missile system, a mobile medium-range surface-to-air defense system.
05:54But retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Steve Ganyard suspected to ABC News that Iran used
06:00passive infrared detection systems to track and target the U.S. aircraft,
06:05meaning it tracked the F-15E without emitting radar signals.
06:09My guess is that this was daytime. My guess is that the Iranians used what's called infrared,
06:16so they used detection that's passive, that used heat differences.
06:20The president did say that their radars rolled down, and so he probably can claim that
06:26legitimately, but the fact that there are still anti-aircraft kinds of capabilities
06:32that are based on heat temperature differences that can identify aircraft and still target aircraft
06:39is probably what got this F-15.
06:42The Iran war and attacks on the U.S.'s F-35 and F-15E haven't slowed down the Pentagon's plan
06:48to bolster jet spending.
06:50Congress will still need to look over and approve President Trump's $1.5 trillion defense budget,
06:55a budget that doesn't include a reported supplemental $200 billion for the war in Iran.
07:01As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move, obviously.
07:06It takes money to kill bad guys.
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