Dive into the jaw-dropping saga of the F-35! We break down why this billion-dollar jet is making headlines (and not for good reasons), how global air forces are rethinking their choices, and what it means for the future of air power. Want the real story, straight from the latest reports? Watch now! Don't forget to subscribe for more deep dives and comment below with your favorite takeaway! #military #aviation #defense #F35 #news
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@xaviertytelman
0:00 - Introduction and F-35 Program Overview
0:48 - Origins of the Single-Fleet Concept
2:21 - Rising Costs and Diminishing Capabilities
4:20 - Reevaluating the Single-Fleet Doctrine
5:56 - International Reactions and Alternatives
7:50 - High-Low Mix and Small Nation Approaches
11:21 - Canada, Switzerland, and Belgian Experiences
16:12 - Transparency Issues and Call to Action
19:59 - Censored Reports and Closing Remarks
We are now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/6KW2Zo9GU39VZSvv2zIpxM
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@xaviertytelman
0:00 - Introduction and F-35 Program Overview
0:48 - Origins of the Single-Fleet Concept
2:21 - Rising Costs and Diminishing Capabilities
4:20 - Reevaluating the Single-Fleet Doctrine
5:56 - International Reactions and Alternatives
7:50 - High-Low Mix and Small Nation Approaches
11:21 - Canada, Switzerland, and Belgian Experiences
16:12 - Transparency Issues and Call to Action
19:59 - Censored Reports and Closing Remarks
We are now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/6KW2Zo9GU39VZSvv2zIpxM
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The latest American report on the F-35 is extraordinary.
00:02It was published by the US government accountability office in June
00:05and it shows that the situation of the aircraft is getting even worse.
00:09That means the rate of aircraft considered fit to carry out a single mission was 67 in 2021
00:15and it's only 44 in 2025.
00:18Meanwhile, the proportion of aircraft fit for all expected missions has dropped from just 38 to a
00:24catastrophic 25 and all versions of the F-35 are now at least 35 points below the expected availability
00:31level to carry out all of their missions.
00:33And as my friend Bruno reminded us in a video on the subject that I encourage you to watch,
00:37the cost per degree Fahrenheit light hour for the aircraft has now skyrocketed to $53,000.
00:42It's a real disaster and it makes it completely unaffordable for some of the countries that had
00:47planned to acquire it.
00:48And we've ended up in this situation because the United States pushed for an all F-35 approach.
00:53The goal was to have a single universal fleet all over the world with a single maintenance
00:58system, a single set of spare parts. Everyone would buy it so the costs would go down.
01:03And that wasn't just the Americans or propaganda or an attempt at a sales pitch.
01:08That was an analysis by the RAND Corporation.
01:11It's the American Research Center whose goal is to improve the decision-making process of the American
01:15military through research and strategic analysis. And in 2008 they actually published a document that
01:21explains why and how. We need to move toward an organization with as few systems as possible
01:27to provide commonality which will allow for cost savings. This matches exactly the narrative
01:31surrounding the F-35 starting in the early 2000s, since this aircraft is going to replace a number
01:37of other planes by being better and for exactly the same price as the planes it's supposed to replace.
01:43So many countries are doing what's necessary to move toward a fleet that will be made up
01:47only of F-35s. That's the case for Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Finland or the Netherlands which
01:53traditionally have only one type of aircraft. But other countries that until now combine several
01:58types of aircraft in their fleet will also follow this doctrine with the goal of having only F-35s
02:04in order to save money. And that's the case for example with Australia, Canada and of course the
02:08United States itself which wanted its fleet to eventually consist only of F-35s and the successor to the
02:14F-22, a sixth generation fighter that was called the NJAD at the time and that Trump named the F
02:20-47.
02:21And that's where we get to our triple problem. So the plane isn't up to the expected level because
02:25its technological ambitions were scaled back quite simply because they were unattainable.
02:30I'll point you to the videos we've made on this topic. Its operating cost is simply unaffordable for a
02:35growing number of countries including wealthy countries like Switzerland, the United States
02:39and Norway. But on top of that its availability is so low that the planned fleet size is insufficient
02:46to carry out even the minimum number of missions. And a growing number of countries have to buy more
02:53aircraft just to be able to do the bare minimum that was expected. And faced with this situation there
02:58are two options. Either you buy more F-35s and enter a vicious financial cycle with an aircraft that
03:04flies too little for a very high cost. Or you give up the concept of a single fleet and move
03:09towards
03:09maintaining two types of fighter jets at the same time. So buying more F-35s? That was Germany's choice.
03:16Which will be forced to acquire 8 to 15 additional aircraft. Because the initial 35 units are considered
03:22insufficient to absorb the high maintenance cycles while still fulfilling their nuclear deterrence
03:26mission within NATO. And now that the Germans realize that even this new aircraft purchase still
03:31doesn't allow them to reach the required operational level, they're outright talking about doubling the
03:36necessary fleet. It's exactly the same thing for the Netherlands. Because in a 2024 report they
03:42highlight a lack of parts to keep the F-35s flying just to maintain the pilot's basic tactical skills.
03:49And the documents from the court of auditors also directly linked the purchase of additional aircraft
03:53to the need to ensure sufficient operational availability. And then there's also the United Kingdom,
03:58where parliamentary documents and statements from the Royal Air Force specified that, due to the
04:03low availability rate of the F-35 fleet, they would need to purchase 27 additional aircraft,
04:08in order to have enough planes ready to fly and able to equip the three squadrons that had been planned.
04:13In short, you have countries going further down the wrong path by buying even more of a plane that
04:18costs them more, doesn't fly enough, and isn't up to standard. And then you have those who are
04:22questioning whether maybe they should back away from this concept of a monolithic single aircraft fleet.
04:27And those people have a strong argument, it's the RAND Corporation itself.
04:31Because in 2013 they published an incredible document in which they completely contradict their
04:36first study, explaining that the expected savings from a common aircraft for several services
04:41were cancelled out by the complexity caused by the divergent requirements.
04:45The title of the study is clear. Do joint fighter aircraft programs really save money?
04:50And they clearly say that in theory, a joint program allows for sharing development costs,
04:55benefiting from economies of scale in production, and reducing some support costs,
04:59especially common parts, maintenance, and so on.
05:02But after studying joint programs since the 1960s?
05:06They conclude that this concept has never managed to reduce the total life cycle costs of a fighter jet,
05:11and they add that the JSF is not on a path that would allow the projected savings to be achieved.
05:16And this is in 2013. What would they say today if they revisited this study?
05:20And on the operational side, they drive the point home even further by emphasizing that relying on a
05:25single platform increases the risk of grounding the entire fleet in case of a malfunction.
05:29That in this case, there are fewer options when facing an unexpected threat.
05:33And that overall, the concept offers less strategic resilience.
05:36So, to put it simply, the over-specification, which was necessary to allow for a common platform
05:41for the three American armed forces, resulted in an aircraft so complex that it's even too expensive
05:46to operate just for the air force. Because of the complexities, the complexities we imposed on
05:51ourselves by wanting to make it an aircraft that was common to all the armed forces. And that,
05:56obviously, costs everyone. Fortunately, there are some countries that are starting to backtrack
06:02and question the concept of a single fleet. Just like Australia, which, after local studies
06:08by the ANO and the APSI, who used the term death spiral regarding the costs of the F-35,
06:13decided to reconsider their choice to buy 100 F-35s. And so, the country revised its goal,
06:19and the budget for the last 24 F-35s was ultimately used to upgrade the F-18s. Australia will therefore
06:26operate a dual F-18s slash F-35 fleet at least until 2040 at a lower cost and offering more
06:32flight hours than the originally planned single F-35 fleet. Meanwhile, the Australian Defence
06:37Association believes that upgrading the F-18s allows the country to maintain a proven strike capability,
06:42while being a lesser financial burden compared to switching to a fleet of 100 F-35s.
06:47And this also allows Australia to consider joining the sixth-generation fighter jet program,
06:52Tempest GCAP, which currently includes the British, Italians and Japanese. Maybe Australia would want
06:58to join this program as well. So, they have other ambitions than just depending on the Americans.
07:03But even the closest countries, when you look at, for example, Israel, they, for their part,
07:07signed a contract worth 8.58 billion dollars to purchase 25 F-15 IA fighter jets, with an option
07:13for 25 more aircraft in December 2025, since the Institute for National Security Studies had concluded
07:19that a single fleet of F-35s would be financially unsustainable due to the maintenance costs per
07:25degree Fahrenheit light hour. And if we look at Japan, for its part, the country decided at the
07:29beginning of the year to spend 1.4 billion dollars to modernize its old 40-year-old F-15s rather
07:35than
07:35increasing the F-35 fleet as initially planned. And the National Institute for Defense Studies,
07:40which is the official think tank of the Japanese Ministry of Defense, confirms that maintaining a fleet
07:44of modernized F-15s helps avoid the budget depletion that a fleet of 100 F-35s would cause.
07:49So, there are a lot of examples, but I'm still going to focus on the United States, which is the
07:54best one,
07:54and who are completely reversing course on their concept, by starting to place orders again for
07:59so-called 4.5 generation aircraft, especially the F-15EX Eagle II, whose purchase price is still
08:05relatively similar to that of the F-35, but whose operating costs are so much lower today.
08:12It seems like a solution to avoid budgetary strain. And Brigadier General Smith warned that the current
08:18US Air Force fleet is already 37 years old on average, and is aging so quickly. That most of
08:25the budget is now spent just trying to keep the planes airworthy at the expense of modernizing them.
08:30And he added that in a few years, the very question of the United States ability to keep
08:35their fleet airworthy would arise, not to mention staying relevant in the future. And the problem
08:39specifically with the F-35. It's that these modern planes, which are supposed to save money on
08:45maintenance, actually end up costing more than the planes they are replacing. So, when the Americans
08:50replace their fleet, it costs them more and more, they burn through their resources even faster,
08:55and they have even less money to buy new aircraft. They're really stuck in a vicious cycle.
08:59And here you can see the figures for the flight costs of the different aircraft that are currently
09:03available on the market. This is taken from the video made by Bruno. And once again, I refer you to
09:07his full
09:07video dedicated to the costs of the different aircraft available in the world, which is linked in the
09:11comments of this video. And all of this led to the leaders of the Air National Guard asking Congress
09:16to fund the purchase of 72 to 100 new fighters per year, including at least 48 F-35s and 24
09:23F-15 EXs.
09:25That is well beyond the current budget requests of the US Air Force, which has only planned to purchase
09:2924 F-35s for the 2026 fiscal year. Since the latest delivered aircraft no longer have any
09:35operational combat capability at all. And here we're coming to a major shift in American doctrine.
09:41It's what's called the high-low mix, which is the combination of very expensive aircraft for a few
09:46very specific missions, with the F-35, alongside which they continue to operate the aircraft that
09:51carry out the vast majority of missions, the F-15 EX for the Americans, which allows for air superiority,
09:58the bomb truck roll and bombing, all the daily missions, and then possibly a few F-35s. And once
10:04again, Ukraine proves that it's not necessarily essential to have this type of aircraft to carry
10:09out missions, including SEED, meaning suppression of enemy air defenses. So this high-low mix is also
10:15becoming the norm in the United States. And all of this brings us to one last group of countries,
10:20those who postpone making a decision on the grounds that having two small fighter fleets would be too
10:25expensive. This goes against the analysis of Japan, Israel, the USA, and Australia. But it's also
10:31contradicted by two other countries. We can consider them as small countries with small budgets. The
10:37first one obviously is Singapore-Singapore, which operates only 20 F-35 and at the same time continues
10:43to buy F-15s. They explain that the aircraft are complementary and not interchangeable. And the
10:48second example, which I've already mentioned several times, is Greece. Greece is also buying 20 F-35s
10:54and the rest of its fleet is mainly Rafale and also F-16s, which are reaching the end of their
10:58service life. So countries like Greece and Singapore can afford to have a dual fleet, considering that
11:04it's complementary and less expensive. But for countries like Switzerland, Denmark, and others,
11:09in the end, for them, no two fleets just won't work. Obviously, it's not possible for both to be
11:14right at the same time. And you know very well, given the example of other countries that have gone back
11:19on the concept of a fleet aircraft, you know who's right. And now, if we look at these countries,
11:23Canada, it's a real saga. Because in 2010, the government conducted a study to estimate the
11:28cost of a fleet made up only of F-35s by comparing it to a mixed fleet. But the problem
11:34is that this
11:34study was not published. And during a hearing at the House of Commons, the representative of Saab,
11:39who sells the Gripen, stated that a fleet of 65 Grippens would cost 50 million Canadian dollars to
11:44operate per year, compared to 250 to 300 million Canadian dollars per year for the planned 65 F-35s,
11:51which, at the time, seemed to be the estimate before the costs skyrocketed. And he also explains
11:56that a fleet of at least 24 Grippens in a Gripen F-35 mix would allow Canada to make significant
12:02savings. And in 2017, when the question of buying an ove F-35 fleet started to be called into question
12:08in the country, the Canadian Defence Commission made a request to the government to have access to
12:13these analyses that were carried out, to be able to know exactly what it would cost,
12:18in addition to having a double fleet, and buy six votes to three.
12:22The government refuses to provide the Defence Commission with information that would allow
12:26them to make an informed choice based on data. They want to keep it secret.
12:31Politics imposes its choice on decision makers in defence matters, and that choice is purely political,
12:37but they refuse to reveal the figures. And that's something that is obviously unacceptable in a
12:42democracy. And it's not for nothing that, at the time, the Rafale and the Eurofighter, which was
12:47supposed to take part in the competition in Canada, both withdrew even before the competition began,
12:51because they knew perfectly well that the dice were loaded. And so today, Canada has officially
12:56ordered only 16 F-35s out of a planned target that is still 88 aircraft. But considering inflation,
13:03the cost of the aircraft, its poor availability, its lower operational level, its lack of sovereignty,
13:07and the poor relations between Canada and the USA? Well, there have been major discussions again
13:12since March 2025, and the change of government, to determine whether it's better to continue with
13:17only F-35s, or to move towards a real industrial partnership with Sweden, to be able to co-produce
13:23the Gripen directly in Canada and go further than the existing partnership. For example, with the Global
13:28Eye, this aircraft, which is a Canadian plane with a Swedish radar, is a real international
13:34operational success all over the world. Even France has bought it. And they are producing
13:39locally, having a local assembly line in Canada, having a real industrial partnership between Sweden
13:44and Canada. That is an ambitious industrial and technological project that strengthens sovereignty
13:48in every way. It's really the right solution. Now, as for Switzerland, let me remind you, in 2021,
13:55they chose the F-35 over the Rafale de Eurofighter and the F-18 Super Hornet, notably because in the
14:03Swiss
14:03valuation, the F-35 was by far the cheapest aircraft over its entire life cycle. And the goal was to
14:10buy
14:1036 aircraft for about 6 billion Swiss francs in order to replace the F-18s and the F-5s. Except
14:17that,
14:17a few years later, the economic miracle disappeared and the United States proposed a price increase.
14:23And Bern discovers that the fixed price contract they had negotiated is actually not fixed price
14:28after all, and so the prices are going to increase. And the government is now requesting an additional
14:32funding of 394 million Swiss francs. Just to be able to buy 30 planes instead of 36 more expensive
14:38ones, to have 6 fewer which will fly less well, which will cost more per degree Fahrenheit light
14:43hour, that's... But the most amazing thing is that Switzerland has just discovered that, well,
14:47the poor availability of the plane means that they will have to buy more than 30 aircraft.
14:51And what about Switzerland's actual operational needs? It wouldn't be to have 36 planes but rather
14:57between 56 and 70 aircraft. And now, for the first time, Switzerland is reopening the door.
15:03That the future resources needed to reach this fleet of 55 to 70 aircraft would be studied,
15:07regardless of the type of aircraft. And that this consideration should take into account the
15:12duration of support, dependence on manufacturers, operational capabilities, and of course, budget
15:18constraints. So let's be clear, they will take the maximum number of F-35s they can buy,
15:23with the budget that has already been decided and voted on. But for the future, there is an opening
15:28to bring other aircraft back into the competition. Why not the Rafale, which I remind you, had won
15:34this competition until Joe Biden made a visit to Switzerland. And at the time, I was working at Air
15:39Ecosport. We had received an email from the manufacturers confirming that the Rafale had won
15:43the competition. The Swiss military wanted it, the manufacturers had already approved it,
15:47everyone was on the same page. It was a political choice, it wasn't a choice made by the military.
15:51So, will the Rafale come back into the competition? Could the Gripen come back
15:55into the competition? I remind you that in the 2008 competition, it was the Gripen that was chosen
16:00at the time. So, there are other options that might open up again, and maybe Switzerland won't make
16:05the mistake of continuing entirely with the F-35. In that respect, I hope, Switzerland will follow
16:11Canada's example. And then there's one country, I haven't talked about it, let me remind you that
16:16I'm Franco-Belgian, and the Franco-Belgians, the Belgians, what are they doing?
16:20Well, they're the only ones, the only ones who really understood, and for them, there are two
16:24issues. First, they realize that NATO, the United States, are forcing them to buy more planes.
16:32Because the fleet, as it is planned, doesn't allow Belgium to meet its obligations within NATO.
16:38And so, the United States is asking Belgium to buy 21 more planes. And Air Force Colonel Roland van Tienen,
16:44who is the director of the F-35 program for Belgian defense, claims that there is no alternative
16:50offering as much air capability at this price, taking into account long-term costs and economies
16:56of scale. But if you're buying 21 planes all at once, then you could buy 21 planes from another
17:01category. We saw it with Greece, with Singapore. They're not going to do that. The Belgians are
17:06great. They're just going to buy 11 planes. And indeed, you don't get a fleet of 11 planes from
17:10another category. So they buy 11 planes first. Then you'll see that in a little while, they'll buy
17:16another 10 planes. That way, they'll never have made a purchase of 20 planes, which would make buying
17:20the Gripen or the Rafale relevant. And in this way, they'll block the opposition, since there are
17:26indeed elected officials who are trying to reopen the discussion and ask the question, is it really
17:30worth continuing to buy F-35s? But anyway, I'm sure the Americans will give us some very good arguments
17:36again, since they are transparent. The Americans, up until now, have at least acknowledged the problems
17:40with the F-35. They told us how much more expensive it was than expected, how it was less effective
17:45than
17:45expected, and how it flew less than expected, at least until early August. On August 7th, we learned that
17:50the US Department of Defense censored the next full report from the US Government Accountability
17:54Office on the F-35. They no longer want the truth to be known, just like in Canada. The studies
18:01weren't
18:01published because they would have bothered certain people. And it's the same in the United States.
18:06No, they no longer want their own public and the international public to really know where the F-35
18:11stands. And that's a real problem today, this so-called transparency we had, which was already
18:16diminished compared to reality. I'll refer you to the videos we also made, Bruno, on this subject.
18:21We knew very well that the Americans were already becoming less and less transparent,
18:25with reports that were getting shorter and less technical. And in which, well, there was a growing
18:29gap between the ambitions and what we were actually able to achieve. And now we no longer have the
18:34information. So if we don't have the information anymore, and the costs are rising, you can imagine
18:39that the situation is not getting any better, and it's only going to get worse tomorrow. So it's really
18:42urgent to make the right decisions. So those who speak French, those who are abroad, reduce as much
18:47as possible all the orders we have with the United States for the F-35 switch to alternative aircraft
18:53for the sake of our common European defense. To be able to buy as a sovereign European without relying
18:59on the goodwill of the United States. Incidentally, about this aircraft, to be able to launch enough
19:05aircraft to face the threat that Russia represents today, that's what's fundamental. There's no need to have
19:12stealth aircraft to face the Russians. Our Air Force, the Gripen, is superior to all the aircraft
19:17available in the Russian military. The Rafale is superior to Russian aircraft. The Ukrainians
19:22prove to us every day that they shoot down Sukhoi 35s with just F-16s, which are largely outclassed by
19:28the Rafale and by the Gripen and by the Eurofighter. So we need to forget about American planes. As much
19:34as
19:34possible, tell your decision makers that you cannot accept this state of subservience. For something that is
19:39expensive, not up to standard, and that ties your hands and feet. Tied to American decisions for
19:45decades and decades. Unfortunately, we can't work properly in Europe. But today, it's time to say
19:50stop. Once again, it's time to say stop and to follow the good examples of the Americans when they
19:56try to back away from the single fleet concept. And what if I told you that it's been more than
20:01three
20:01years since Lockheed Martin delivered over 400 F-35s and they have zero combat capability? Would you
20:09believe me? You'd have a hard time, right? Because this information is so unbelievable. And yet, it is
20:15true and described in several American reports that tell about other crazy things like this. And we
20:22understand why this year they censored a report. So, I'm making a video with long readings of passages.
20:31It's a bit tedious, but if I didn't read these reports, you wouldn't believe what I'm telling you.
20:37So, the video link is in the description. I hope you enjoyed this video and I'll see you very soon.