Lockheed Martin reportedly will invest about $1 billion to address long-standing F-35 fleet-readiness problems, according to comments by CEO James Taiclet during a conference call with analysts, on the occasion of the company’s annual results. “We have put a billion-plus (dollars) into spare parts and repairs already, but we are going to double-down on that, to make an extra effort to improve the mission-capable rate for the aircraft, and make up for the unfortunate deficit that’s been created over the last four or five years.”
Lockheed did not characterize how the $1 billion would be applied to address the readiness issues.
At the end of 2025 a Pentagon inspector general reported the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office has not consistently held Lockheed Martin accountable for poor performance in sustainment activities for the stealth fighter aircraft. Despite the report’s conclusion that confirmed the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft has achieved a readiness rate of just 50%, the contractor was paid $1.7 billion without any fees or adjustments.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a single-engine jet with stealth technology and capabilities for air-to-air, air-to-ground, electronic warfare, and reconnaissance missions. Its three variants are in service for the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Navy, and for the defense forces of 11 other nations. Seven more nations are under contract for future F-35 deliveries.
In the conference call, the CEO seemed to be acknowledging the Pentagon report when he noted that in recent years “there was, in our opinion, some under-funding of spare parts and repair capacity.” His reference to “a billion-plus dollars” described Lockheed’s effort to offset the under-funding with its own investment.
“We have been striving to make up for some of that with internal investment,” he noted. “
The new commitment to improve F-35 readiness would be in addition to Lockheed’s separate investment this year, also estimated at $1 billion, to implement the F-35’s Block 4 update. “In 2026 we will make further investments in the program,” according to Taiclet, “with a focus on making further progress on Block 4 capability improvements.”
Block 4 refers to scheduled modernization for the F-35’s sensor technologies, electronic warfare capabilities, and weapons capacity. The initiative is well behind schedule due to delays in the preceding Technology Refresh 3 sequence, which is the effort to implement new hardware and software in current F-35s so that they will be capable of adopting those new Block 4 technologies.
