For years the standard defence of the F-35 went like this: yes, the development was a nightmare, but the unit price kept falling, and eventually a stealth fighter would cost about what a fourth-generation jet costs. That argument has now run out of road.

The F-35 Joint Program Office has released per-variant costs for Lots 18 and 19 in current-year dollars — figures it had previously withheld as controlled unclassified information — and every one of them is the highest in the programme’s history.

An F-35A now costs $92 million. An F-35B costs $121.4 million. Prices are going up, not down.

The three price tags

The Air Force’s F-35A remains the cheapest and simplest of the family, and it took the biggest percentage hit — up 11.5 percent. The Marine Corps’ F-35B, with its lift fan and swivelling exhaust nozzle, stays the most expensive at $121.4 million and rose almost exactly as much in percentage terms. The carrier-capable F-35C, with its bigger wing and folding wingtips, rose least, at 8.5 percent, and sits at $110.8 million.

These are average flyaway costs — the basic cost of producing one aircraft. Importantly, the JPO confirmed the figures include the engines and radars, which are handed to Lockheed Martin as government-furnished equipment. That matters, because when a manufacturer quotes an airframe-only number it is not describing the same thing at all.

Inflation, in 2012 dollars and in real money

The Pentagon’s August selected acquisition report had already flagged rising costs, but it quoted flyaway prices in 2012 dollars — the year the programme was rebaselined. In those constant dollars the F-35A was $78 million (up 7.3 percent since the 2023 report), the F-35B $110.3 million (up 10.5 percent) and the F-35C $93.4 million (up 6.6 percent).

Compare those to the current-year increases of 11.5, 11.4 and 8.5 percent and the gap tells its own story. The real-money numbers are climbing faster than the constant-dollar ones. That is inflation, doing exactly what Lockheed executives said it would.

The other driver is that the aircraft being delivered now is not the aircraft that was priced in 2012. Technology Refresh 3 adds computing and processing power. Block 4 adds weapons, sensors and sensor-fusion capability. Both are being paid for in the unit price.

Lockheed’s framing

Asked about the growth, the Joint Program Office pointed back to the acquisition report. Lockheed Martin was more expansive, arguing the report shows a programme entering full-rate production, resuming high-volume deliveries and expanding internationally.

That is a fair description of where the programme is. It is also an implicit acknowledgement that the era of the falling F-35 unit price is over. The fight now is about sustainment and upgrades, not about driving the sticker down.

Lockheed Martin’s own overview of the F-35 Lightning II family and the three variants.

For the air forces buying it — and there are more of them every year — the practical question is simple. At $92 million for an A model, the F-35 no longer undercuts a well-equipped fourth-generation fighter. It has to win on capability alone. Most customers still think it does. But nobody is calling it cheap any more.

Sources: Air & Space Forces Magazine, F-35 Joint Program Office, U.S. Department of Defense modernised selected acquisition report (August 2026), Lockheed Martin, Defense One.