How Much Does An F-35 Jet Cost?

Updated on September 21, 2026 | Written by Alec Pow
This article was researched using 10 sources. See our methodology and corrections policy.

An F-35 fighter jet currently costs about $92 million for an F-35A, $121.4 million for an F-35B, and $110.8 million for an F-35C. These are the latest average flyaway prices for production Lots 18 and 19, released by the F-35 Joint Program Office in September 2026.

Those prices already include the aircraft’s engine and radar. They should not have another $20 million+ engine charge added on top. The figures cover the basic cost of producing a flyable aircraft, but they do not include decades of maintenance, pilot training, weapons, spare parts, simulators, base construction, or many of the other expenses found in a national F-35 acquisition package.

This distinction explains why a government can buy a nominal $92 million F-35A while a complete international acquisition package works out to $150 million, $200 million, or much more per aircraft when the surrounding equipment and support are divided across the fleet. Saudi Arabia’s newly approved possible Foreign Military Sale makes that distinction especially clear: its package is estimated at $24.3 billion for 48 F-35As, 49 engines, and extensive support, which superficially works out to more than $500 million per aircraft even though that is not the unit price of an F-35A.

Article Highlights

• The latest F-35A average flyaway price is $92 million (at $30 per hour, earning that amount would take about 1.5 thousand years of full-time work, before taxes).
• The F-35B costs about $121.4 million.
• The carrier-based F-35C costs about $110.8 million.
• These Lots 18-19 figures already include the engine and radar.
• The F-35A price increased 11.5% from its Lots 15-17 benchmark.
• The latest Pentagon estimate puts F-35 acquisition costs at about $536.3 billion, roughly $51 billion above the previous estimate.
• The latest Pentagon lifecycle estimate is approximately $1.93 trillion, while GAO’s June 2026 report cites about $1.6 trillion in U.S. sustainment costs through 2088 based on the program’s 2024 estimate.
• Saudi Arabia’s proposed $24.3 billion package covers 48 F-35As, 49 engines, and extensive support. Dividing that package by 48 does not produce the jet’s unit price.

How Much Does an F-35 Fighter Jet Cost?

F-35 variant	Lots 15-17	Lots 18-19	Increase
F-35A	$82.5 million (about 1.3 thousand years of full-time work at $30 per hour)	$92.0 million	11.5%
F-35B	$109 million	$121.4 million	11.4%
F-35C	$102.1 million	$110.8 million	8.5%

The new figures were supplied by the F-35 Joint Program Office and reported by Air & Space Forces Magazine on September 3, 2026. They are averages across production Lots 18 and 19 in current-year dollars.

The price increase is easiest to see on the F-35A. Its benchmark moved from $82.5 million to $92 million, an increase of $9.5 million per aircraft.

The F-35B increased by $12.4 million, from $109 million to $121.4 million. The F-35C increased by $8.7 million, from $102.1 million to $110.8 million.

The F-35B remains the most expensive variant because its short-takeoff and vertical-landing capability requires additional hardware, including its lift system and swiveling exhaust nozzle. The F-35C has larger wings, folding wingtips, and equipment designed for carrier operations. The conventional F-35A remains the least expensive version.

What the $92 Million Includes

A flyaway price is not just the metal shell of the airplane. It represents the recurring production cost required to deliver the aircraft in flyable condition.

The September 2026 JPO figures include the airframe, F135 engine, and radar. The engine and radar are provided to Lockheed Martin as government-furnished equipment, which is one reason individual contract announcements can appear to show a lower price than the complete flyaway figure.

This is where older F-35 cost calculations can go wrong. A previous Lot 18 engine contract worked out to roughly $20.4 million (about 327 years of full-time work at $30 per hour) per engine. Adding that number to today’s $92 million F-35A price would count the engine twice.

The flyaway price still excludes many expenses required to create an operational fighter unit, including:

• Weapons and ammunition
• Spare engines and parts
• Pilot and maintenance training
• Flight simulators
• Ground-support equipment
• Initial sustainment contracts
• Base construction and secure facilities
• Future modifications and software upgrades

Why the Price Increased

The F-35 spent years moving down the production-cost curve as manufacturing volume increased. Lots 18 and 19 reverse part of that trend.

The Pentagon’s latest acquisition report attributes much of the new pressure to inflation and upgrades. An August 2026 F-35 acquisition-cost review identifies inflation, Technology Refresh 3, and Block 4 modernization among the forces pushing costs higher.

Technology Refresh 3 adds new computing hardware and processing capacity needed to support later capabilities. Block 4 adds new weapons, sensors, electronic-warfare functions, and other improvements.

Raw-material and supplier costs have also risen. That matters on an aircraft assembled from parts produced across a large international supply chain.

The increase does not mean every F-35 delivered in Lots 18 and 19 carries the exact same invoice. The JPO numbers are average flyaway costs by variant across both production lots.

The $24.3 Billion Contract

Lockheed Martin and the Joint Program Office finalized Lots 18 and 19 in September 2025 for up to 296 aircraft. Lockheed described the two-lot production agreement as covering aircraft for U.S. services, international partners, and Foreign Military Sales customers.

The air-vehicle portion is worth nearly $24.3 billion.

Divide $24.3 billion by 296 aircraft and the result is about $82.1 million per jet.

That is not the current F-35 sticker price. The $24.3 billion contract covers air vehicles and excludes government-furnished engines. The latest JPO flyaway figures combine those pieces to produce the more useful $92 million F-35A, $121.4 million F-35B, and $110.8 million F-35C benchmarks.

A December 2024 Department of Defense contract announcement illustrates the same accounting issue. The initial Lot 18 air-vehicle award covered 145 aircraft but did not represent the complete cost of every engine, support item, and later program expense.

What 24 F-35As Would Cost

The new price gives us a cleaner ThePricer calculation for a hypothetical squadron-sized purchase.

24 F-35As × $92 million = $2.208 billion

That $2.208 billion represents only the current average flyaway value of the aircraft themselves.

If a country signs a $4 billion package for 24 aircraft, the difference between the $2.208 billion flyaway calculation and the contract total would be $1.792 billion.

That extra money could include weapons, spares, simulators, training, base work, support equipment, logistics, and initial sustainment. It would be incorrect to conclude that each F-35 itself cost $166.7 million simply by dividing the entire package by 24.

Real Export Packages

Foreign purchases provide the clearest examples of the difference between aircraft cost and program cost.

The newest example is Saudi Arabia. On September 17, 2026, the U.S. State Department approved a possible Foreign Military Sale estimated at $24.3 billion. The requested package includes 48 conventional-takeoff-and-landing F-35A fighters and 49 Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engines, consisting of 48 installed engines and one spare.

It also includes secure communications and navigation equipment, electronic-warfare database support, spare parts, repair support, training aids and simulators, software and technical documentation, transportation and refueling support, personnel training, modifications, maintenance support, and other services and equipment.

Simple division produces a dramatic number:

$24.3 billion ÷ 48 aircraft = $506.25 million per aircraft

But an F-35A did not suddenly become a $506 million fighter jet. The latest average flyaway benchmark remains about $92 million. At that benchmark, 48 aircraft would have a simple flyaway value of approximately $4.416 billion.

The difference illustrates how misleading package-per-aircraft arithmetic can be. The $24.3 billion Saudi figure is an estimated Foreign Military Sale package, not a final invoice for 48 bare aircraft. Its configuration, delivery timing, support requirements, equipment, and eventual contracted value can also differ from a U.S. production-lot average, so the difference should not be treated as an itemized “$19.9 billion support bill.”

The United Kingdom announced in June 2025 that it would acquire 12 F-35As for NATO’s nuclear-sharing mission. Reuters reported an estimated aircraft price of about £80 million per jet, which was about $109 million at the exchange rate used at the time.

Switzerland shows how quickly the larger package can become complicated. Swiss voters originally approved a budget of 6 billion Swiss francs for 36 F-35As. Rising U.S. costs later created a dispute over whether that amount was truly fixed.

In December 2025, Switzerland said it would reduce the number of F-35As purchased so the program could remain within its 6 billion-franc budget. The final number of jets had not been fixed at 36 under that revised plan.

Foreign Military Sale notifications can look even higher because they commonly include maximum quantities of equipment, spare parts, training, technical assistance, infrastructure support, and other services. The published estimated value is not proof that the aircraft itself carries the package’s per-jet price.

Program Acquisition

The unit price is only one part of the U.S. F-35 budget.

The Pentagon’s latest Modernized Selected Acquisition Report raised estimated acquisition cost to approximately $536.3 billion. That is about $51 billion more than the previous $485.2 billion estimate, an increase of more than 10%.

Acquisition includes far more than multiplying aircraft count by the latest flyaway price. It includes development, procurement, engines, modifications, spare parts, and other program expenses spread across decades.

The U.S. program calls for approximately 2,456 production aircraft. Dividing $536.3 billion by 2,456 produces about $218.4 million per planned aircraft.

That number is useful only as program math. It is not an F-35 unit price because billions of dollars in development and other acquisition costs are being allocated across the aircraft count.

The $2.1 Trillion F-35 Figure

The widely quoted $2.1 trillion F-35 figure came from an older Pentagon lifecycle estimate. It was never the purchase price of today’s aircraft.

The F-35 Joint Program Office previously explained in its program-cost clarification that the estimate stretched across almost a century of development, production, operations, modernization, personnel, fuel, maintenance, repairs, software, spare parts, and other support expenses.

The Pentagon’s newer Modernized Selected Acquisition Report, released in August 2026 and covering 2025 program data, lowered the estimated total lifecycle cost to approximately $1.93 trillion, down from about $2.06 trillion in the previous MSAR.

The latest projection is still an estimate extending many decades into the future. It can change with assumptions about fuel, personnel, inflation, materials, aircraft service life, modernization, flying hours, and sustainment improvements.

A separate June 2026 Government Accountability Office review says U.S. lifetime sustainment alone was estimated at approximately $1.6 trillion through 2088, as of 2024. That figure covers operating and support costs rather than the entire acquisition-and-sustainment lifecycle.

This is why saving $5 million on a production jet matters but cannot solve the program’s largest cost problem. The aircraft purchase price is only one portion of what the United States expects to spend across the F-35’s service life.

Readiness Has a Price

GAO’s latest data add another cost that does not appear in the sticker price.

Across the U.S. F-35 fleet, the mission-capable rate fell from 67% in fiscal 2021 to 44% in fiscal 2025. The full-mission-capable rate fell from 38% to 25% over the same period.

The Joint Program Office responded with its Global Support Solution Reset. GAO says the U.S. military services will need approximately $13.7 billion more than previously planned in F-35 sustainment funding from fiscal 2026 through fiscal 2031 to meet the strategy’s goals.

About $7.3 billion of that additional requirement is for spare parts and repair material. Another $3.1 billion is tied to procurement and depot capacity, while roughly $3.3 billion is for additional operation and maintenance funding.

That means a cheaper acquisition price can be outweighed later if too many aircraft require expensive parts, depot work, or contractor support to remain available for missions.

Cost Per Flight Hour

There is no trustworthy single “2026 cost per F-35 flight hour” figure that represents every variant and every service.

The latest Congressional Budget Office operating-cost study was released in 2025 but uses operating and support cost data through fiscal 2023. CBO found that per-flight-hour costs for all three variants had stabilized after earlier declines.

CBO also found that recent F-35A operating and support costs per flying hour were similar to F-15C/D and F-15E costs, below the F-22, and above the F-16C/D.

That is a better way to use the current government data than presenting an old $25,000 Pentagon target as if it were today’s measured operating price.

Cost per flight hour also changes when aircraft fly less because fixed personnel, maintenance, and support expenses are spread across fewer flying hours.

What We Verified

• Checked: the September 2026 JPO figures put the F-35A at $92 million, F-35B at $121.4 million, and F-35C at $110.8 million.
• Confirmed: those Lots 18-19 flyaway prices already include the aircraft’s engine and radar.
• Cross-referenced: the Lots 18-19 air-vehicle agreement covers up to 296 aircraft for nearly $24.3 billion, but its contract value does not include the government-furnished engines used in the full flyaway calculation.
• Verified: the latest Pentagon acquisition estimate is approximately $536.3 billion, up about $51 billion from the previous estimate.
• Updated: the latest Pentagon lifecycle estimate is approximately $1.93 trillion, rather than the older approximately $2.1 trillion figure still frequently quoted.
• Checked: GAO’s June 2026 report cites approximately $1.6 trillion in U.S. sustainment costs through 2088, based on the program’s 2024 estimate.
• Confirmed: the fleetwide mission-capable rate fell to 44% in fiscal 2025, prompting an additional $13.7 billion sustainment funding requirement through fiscal 2031.
• Added: the September 17, 2026 Saudi notification covers a possible $24.3 billion package for 48 F-35As, 49 F135 engines, and extensive support and equipment.

Related Fighter Jet Costs

For another U.S. stealth fighter, compare the cost of the F-22 Raptor, where low production volume produced very different per-aircraft economics.

Our guide to the F/A-18 fighter jet cost provides a useful comparison with the nonstealthy carrier fighter family the F-35C is gradually complementing and replacing.

For historical context on how fighter procurement changed across generations, see the cost of the F-11 fighter.

Answers to Common Questions

How much does an F-35A cost in 2026?

The current average flyaway price is $92 million across production Lots 18 and 19.

How much does an F-35B cost?

The current average F-35B flyaway cost is $121.4 million. It is the most expensive F-35 variant because of the equipment required for short takeoffs and vertical landings.

How much does an F-35C cost?

The carrier-capable F-35C currently averages $110.8 million in Lots 18 and 19.

Does the F-35 price include the engine?

Yes. The latest $92 million, $121.4 million, and $110.8 million JPO flyaway prices include the engine and radar. Do not add a separate F135 engine price to those figures.

Does Saudi Arabia’s $24.3 billion package mean an F-35 costs $506 million?

No. Dividing the proposed Saudi package by 48 aircraft gives approximately $506.25 million per jet, but the package also includes 49 engines, including one spare, plus training, simulators, spare parts, software, communications equipment, maintenance support, logistics, transportation, and other equipment and services. The latest average F-35A flyaway benchmark is still approximately $92 million.

Why does an export F-35 sometimes appear to cost $200 million or more?

Foreign packages can include weapons, spare engines, replacement parts, simulators, pilot training, maintenance equipment, infrastructure, technical support, and years of initial sustainment. Dividing the entire package by the number of aircraft does not produce the jet’s flyaway price.

How much would 24 F-35As cost?

At the current $92 million flyaway benchmark, 24 aircraft equal $2.208 billion before weapons, training, spares, infrastructure, and long-term support.

Why is the F-35 program said to cost $2.1 trillion?

That figure comes from an older long-term Pentagon lifecycle estimate covering acquisition, operations, personnel, fuel, maintenance, modernization, and support over many decades. The latest Pentagon estimate has fallen to approximately $1.93 trillion. It is still a lifecycle projection, not the purchase price of the aircraft fleet.