The global fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs) has surpassed a million flight hours, manufacturer Lockheed Martin announced on 3 March 2025.
“Reaching one million flight hours is a monumental achievement for the F-35 programme. It highlights the unwavering dedication of our pilots, maintainers, industry partners and our international partners and Foreign Military Sales customers,” Lieutenant General Michael Schmidt, Program Executive Officer for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office, was quoted as saying in a Lockheed Martin press release. “This milestone is not just a testament to the F-35’s unmatched capability, but also to the resilience and commitment of everyone involved in this program. As we continue to expand the fleet and advance the F-35’s capabilities, we are ensuring the warfighters of today and tomorrow have the most advanced, reliable, and effective tool to protect our nations.”
Lockheed Martin announced in August 2024 that the global fleet of F-35s had passed 1,000 aircraft and on 3 March put that figure at “more than 1,100”.
There have been a few bumps along the way to that figure. After the Covid-19 pandemic caused production issues from 2020. In July 2023 difficulties occurred with the F-35’s Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3) upgrade that led to a suspension of F-35 deliveries. For a whole year, from July 2023, aircraft coming off the production line (because all Block 15 aircraft are being built to TR-3 standards) went straight into storage, pending a solution that would allow the new configuration to be certificated. However, deliveries of the first TR-3-configured F-35s began on 19 July 2024, using a 90% solution to the TR-3 issues.
A Lockheed Martin spokesperson told ESD on 6 February 2025 that the company is looking to deliver 170 to 190 F-35s in 2025 and at that point had an official order backlog amounting to 408 aircraft.
The first unit to be equipped with the F-35 – the US Marine Corps’ Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 (VMFA-121) flying F-35Bs – achieved initial operational capability with the aircraft in July 2015. Since then, up to the end of 2024, 1,102 F-35s have been delivered to the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps and international members of the JSF programme, which now number 19 countries in addition to the United States.
The US military services are the primary operators of the F-35, with planned procurement of 1,763 F-35As for the USAF, 353 F-35Bs and 67 F-35Cs for the US Marine Corps, and 273 F-35Cs for the US Navy. The international (non-US) programme of record for the F-35 currently stands at 1,123 aircraft.
