Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is the world’s most extensively operated fifth-generation stealth aircraft. On April 1, Norway became the first country to receive all the F-35 fighters ordered, a major milestone for the stealth aircraft program.
The Joint Program Office (JPO) announced that Norway received its last two F-35A Lightning II fighter jets on April 1.
With this delivery, Norway became the first country to complete its full fleet of aircraft, bringing the Royal Norwegian Air Force’s (RNAF) operational F-35 fleet to 52 aircraft. The conclusion of delivery was described as a significant milestone.
“The F-35 is a powerful tool for strategic deterrence, enhancing alliance-based security and discouraging potential aggression,” said RNAF Col Egil Soerstroenen, the F-35 JPO Norway National Deputy. “Receiving all our 52 F-35 aircraft thus represents a huge milestone for Norway. We highly value the solid and successful partnership with government and industry in the F-35 program, and we will continue to evolve Norway’s F-35 capability in strong cooperation with the other F-35 partner nations.”
The conclusion of delivery comes amid a raging controversy regarding the purchase of F-35 Lightning II fighters. Several European countries have expressed suspicion that an “erratic” Donald Trump could make the F-35’s operation difficult by blocking access to software updates in the event of a disagreement, making the purchase a risky business.
So far, Lockheed Martin has delivered over 1,100 units to militaries of 20 countries. However, despite its global popularity and cutting-edge technology, the aircraft remains beset with technical woes, readiness troubles, and crashes.
According to the FY2024 Annual Report for the Office of the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E), published recently, the F-35 program continues to face difficulties in software development and testing, which indicates persisting difficulties in upgrades and production.
The report states that the program “has shown no improvement in meeting schedule and performance timelines for developing and testing software designed to address deficiencies and add new capabilities.”
This finding is concerning because the aircraft is currently undergoing upgrades to the Technology Refresh-3 (TR3) configuration as part of a larger Block 4 modernization plan.
The TR-3 avionics upgrade, which comprises updated integrated core processors, an aircraft memory system, and panoramic cockpit displays, is a crucial component in enabling new Block 4 mission systems capabilities.
Notably, while Lockheed Martin started manufacturing F-35s in the TR-3 configuration in the summer of 2023, the government refused to take delivery until TR-3 developmental testing was finished.
After a year’s halt, the Joint Program Office (JPO) Director, Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, allowed the deliveries to resume in July 2024. At the time, the delivery was approved because, as per Schmidt, the jets’ software was stable enough in tests for safe flight operations and drills.
However, this did not eradicate the woes plaguing the upgrades, and the TR-3 remains in developmental testing despite the resumption of deliveries. The DOT&E believes operational testing can start only in 2026.
“DOT&E assesses that dedicated operational testing of these aircraft will not occur until mid to late FY26, approximately two years after the configuration began delivery to the field,” stated the report.
The report states that the upgrade has been repeatedly postponed to the point that officials have been reluctant to set a definitive timetable for declaring full combat capability. It is, however, pertinent to note that weapons programs can start fielding systems before finishing full operational testing. This means that even if operational testing has been delayed until 2026, TR-3 combat capability could be delivered this year.
“As of January [2025], we have delivered over 100 TR-3-equipped aircraft, bringing the total number of operational aircraft delivered to more than 1,100,” JPO director Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt told Air and Space Forces Magazine.
The report further stated that the aircraft that have been delivered to the operators feature a “truncated” TR-3 configuration. “No combat-capable TR-3 aircraft have been delivered to the U.S. Services to date,” it highlighted.
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It states that the program “cannot simultaneously work out solutions” to address software issues with the existing TR-2 systems and create the software required to run the improved TR-3 avionics. It stresses that development delays for the TR-3 have also affected attempts to add additional capabilities to existing TR-2 jets.
“Challenges added with the TR-3 avionics upgrades, both in development and testing, have caused additional delays to the planned schedules for delivering capabilities in Block 4 for the aircraft in the TR-2 configuration,” the report said.
The report also stated that Lockheed Martin Corp. continues to deliver F-35 fighter jet aircraft with quality flaws. According to the assessment, production line quality flaws “are still being discovered in the field.”
The report highlights that JPO statistics state that between 2016 and 2023, efforts to increase production quality led to a 63 percent decrease in the number of quality escapes from the production line and a 47 percent reduction in the time spent on scrap, rework, and repair.
However, issues persist.
“In one example, a U.S. Marine Corps fighter squadron in California discovered a series of quality escapes with several F-35C aircraft delivered to the unit in FY24,” the report noted.
Further, the F-35 “continues to fall short” of the dependability and maintainability metrics established for it in the original Capabilities Development Document, or CDD, which has never been modified, according to the DOT&E assessment. “Historical trend data show that, despite reliability improvements initiated by the program, improving and sustaining improvement in aircraft suitability metrics is difficult to achieve,” the DOT&E report stated.
However, this is not the first time that the F-35 has run into trouble.
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In addition to encountering production and upgrade hurdles, the F-35 also has an abysmal operational readiness record, as highlighted in the DOT&E report.
For instance, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment published in October 2024 stated that despite the USAF’s increased budget for operations and maintenance over the last six years to maintain its F-35A, the aircraft fell short of desired readiness expectations.
At the time, the government watchdog discovered that the mission capability rates—which gauge the proportion of time each aircraft can complete at least one of its missions— only moderately improved.
The GAO report claimed that between 2018 and 2023, the Pentagon spent US$12 billion on operations and maintenance. However, despite this, the US Air Force’s F-35A “did not meet its mission capable goals.” Additionally, the F-35B and F-35C variants of the Marine Corps and Navy also respectively failed to meet their goals throughout those six years. The report stated that the F-35’s operations and maintenance cost the Air Force US$7.46 billion, the Marine Corps US$2.75 billion, and the Navy $1.87 billion.
These findings aligned with previous such assessments, in which GAO had noted that less than half of the F-35 fighters that were supposed to be ready for combat at short notice were found to be combat-ready.
In 2023, the F-35 Program Executive Officer, Air Force Lt. Gen. Mike Schmidt, also expressed discontent with the readiness levels when he noted that only half of the US Joint Strike Fighter fleet was operational as of February 2023. Appearing before the US Congress, he disclosed that, on a monthly average, 53.1% of the fleet’s more than 540 F-35s were operational.
For years, it has been widely known that the F-35 has long suffered from several maintenance problems, including depot maintenance delays, spare component shortages, a heavy reliance on contractors, and trouble obtaining technical data for repairs. However, that is not the only fallibility. Earlier, the EurAsian Times explained in detail how some technological issues in the F135 Pratt & Whitney engine affected the aircraft’s readiness rate.
Additionally, the F-35 has suffered from rising costs for a long time. Another GAO assessment published in May last year revealed that the aircraft’s availability has declined while the F-35’s life cycle cost has increased by over US$2 trillion. The F-35 program is believed to be the most expensive military endeavor in history.
If this was not enough to tarnish the aircraft’s reputation, the F-35 has also been involved in multiple crashes. In a recent development, an F-35 crashed in Alaska on January 28. The pilot ejected to safety, but the aircraft was badly damaged. This was the third crash of the F-35 within a year.
In what can only be described as horrid, the F-35 has been involved in 31 aircraft crashes since it began flying almost 20 years ago. Some of these crashes have been fatal. In 2019, for instance, a Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-35A crashed into the water during a nighttime training flight. The pilot was killed in the crash.
In 2022, a US Navy F-35C experienced a “landing incident” on the deck of the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. Seven US military personnel were reportedly injured in the mishap.
The pilot was performing routine flight operations when the incident took place and managed to eject safely. More recently, in May 2024, a pilot was gravely injured when an F-35 crashed in New Mexico following a refueling stop.
The above issues plaguing the F-35 are extremely concerning because not only is this aircraft the most widely operated stealth fighter in the world and a pillar of NATO interoperability, but it is also considered a critical tool for conducting air operations against adversaries such as China in case of an Indo-Pacific conflict.
With its advanced stealth features, the F-35 is designed to evade radar detection, making it a valuable asset for conducting covert missions. Moreover, it is equipped with advanced sensors and communication systems that allow it to gather and transmit vital intelligence data in real-time.
Over 300 F-35 fighters are anticipated to be stationed in the Indo-Pacific region by 2035, with users including Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States.
Notably, the DOT&E report comes at a time when US billionaire and head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, has launched a campaign against the F-35, criticizing its outdated and inefficient design. Musk has gone so far as to call the F-35 program the “worst military value for money in history” while suggesting that the funds spent on it would be better invested in drone technology.
In November last year, Elon Musk said that the F-35 Lightning II aircraft is obsolete in the age of drones. He said on X: “The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level because it was required to be too many things to too many people.
This made it an expensive and complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes. And manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. They will just get pilots killed.”
Several military commentators earlier expressed concern that Donald Trump could axe plans to acquire additional F-35 Lightning II stealth aircraft. EurAsian Times earlier reported on a rumor suggesting that Trump could terminate the contract to purchase additional F-35 Lightning II stealth aircraft.
Having said that, the JPO and Lockheed Martin have already launched various efforts to plug the gaps and improve readiness. Over the next five years, Lockheed plans to invest US$350 million “to improve capabilities and drive efficiency across the F-35 enterprise.”
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