In 2025, American defense giant Lockheed Martin delivered 191 fifth-generation F-35 fighter jets to customers, an all-time record and 51 more than the 142 aircraft produced in 2024.
Such production rates are truly impressive. As Lockheed Martin noted, these rates are five times higher than the production rates of any other allied fighter jet.
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However, Lockheed Martin does not have many competitors among other Western countries. The closest competitor is France's Dassault Aviation, which also set a record in 2025 by producing 26 Rafale aircraft, exceeding its target by one.
At the same time, the company did not mention the main reason behind these record results. It was able to achieve them only because of a specific problem. Back in 2023, Lockheed Martin faced a problem with the Technology Refresh 3 update, and two years ago there were discussions about a potential halt in fighter jet production, which ultimately did not happen.
Moreover, since the main issue was software-related, the company continued assembling aircraft, resuming deliveries only in July 2024, with the clarification that the fighters would not be combat-ready until 2025.
Thanks to this backlog, Lockheed Martin was able to deliver a record number of aircraft in 2025. The 2025 deliveries are nearly double those of 2024, when 110 aircraft were delivered despite the challenges, already up from 98 in 2023. Deliveries in 2022 and 2021 were nearly identical, at 141 and 142 F-35s, respectively.
Lockheed Martin also noted that in 2025 it expanded its export portfolio with additional orders from Italy for 25 fighter jets and from Denmark for 16 aircraft.
In September last year, an agreement was reached with the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) to produce batches 18 and 19, comprising up to 296 fighter jets, for $24 billion. However, this price of only $81 million per one aircraft does not include the engine, weapons, ancillary equipment, spare parts, and services. As a result, the export price of the F-35 is significantly higher—$208 million in the case of the Czech order.
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