Air Force Plans to Cut F-35 Purchases in 2026 by Half

Post by : Bianca Suleiman

Photo: X/@velitesgear

The Air Force plans to buy fewer F-35 fighter jets in 2026. Instead of buying 44 jets like this year, they will buy only 24 jets for around $4 billion. This is less than the 51 jets they bought in 2024 for $5.5 billion.

Even though they will buy fewer jets, the cost won’t drop much. In fact, the total cost will only go down by about 18% in 2026 compared to 2025. This means that the Air Force might not save as much money as they expect.

This is unusual because the full defense budget for the next fiscal year has not been officially released yet. Usually, the government shares these details in the spring with briefings. But this time, only some parts of the budget have been shared.

The House Appropriations subcommittee has already passed a bill to buy 42 F-35s for the Air Force, and they’ve also planned for the Marine Corps and Navy to get more F-35s. The Air Force, however, had planned to reduce its F-35 purchases because some upgrades to the planes were delayed.

F-35s are considered the main fighter jets for the Air Force. The leaders say these jets help connect different systems, making them very important. However, the Air Force’s fleet of fighter jets is getting older, and they are replacing old planes like the F-15s and F-16s. They say they need to buy at least 72 new fighter jets every year to keep up.

With the new plan to buy only 24 F-35s and 21 F-15EX fighters, the Air Force will fall short of that goal. In 2025, they were supposed to buy 42 F-35s, but now, it looks like they will only get 24.

Some experts, like Doug Birkey, say this huge cut in F-35 purchases will hurt the Air Force’s ability to modernize its fighter fleet. He says the Air Force needs 72 new fighters every year just to keep up. If they cut the number, they won’t be able to catch up in the future.

A smaller number of F-35s would also cause problems for the companies that make the parts for these planes. If the Air Force cuts its orders, it could make it hard for the suppliers to plan and keep up with production. This could hurt the companies that make the F-35, including Lockheed Martin, and even more than 1,900 other companies that provide parts.

The Pentagon is likely planning these cuts because it has less money to spend, but experts believe that Congress might decide to bring back the usual number of planes.

Even though some people, like Elon Musk, say that the F-35 is becoming outdated because of drones, many people in the government still think the F-35 is important for national security. The news about the cut made Lockheed Martin’s stock go down, but the company is trying to recover from the loss.