F-35 Lightning II: The Lift Fan, a 2,000-Pound Diet and a $2 Trillion Bill

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, nicknamed Fat Amy and the Battle Penguin by pilots, grew out of the post-Cold War Joint Strike Fighter program, which aimed to replace the F-16, F/A-18, A-10 and Harrier with one design whose three variants shared 70 percent of their parts. Lockheed's X-35 beat Boeing's X-32 in 2001 thanks to a shaft-driven lift fan: a clutch sends nearly 29,000 horsepower to a horizontal fan behind the cockpit while the rear nozzle swivels 90 degrees down. That produced the F-35A for the Air Force, the hovering F-35B for the Marines and the larger-winged F-35C for Navy carriers.

By 2003 the F-35B was more than 2,000 pounds overweight and could no longer hover safely. Lockheed's STOVL Weight Attack Team trimmed titanium bulkheads and shrank weapons bays, at a cost of $6.2 billion and an 18-month delay. Production ran alongside testing, a strategy called concurrency that a former Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition labeled acquisition malpractice, and commonality ended near 25 percent. The payoff is sensor fusion: the APG-81 AESA radar, the ASQ-239 Barracuda electronic warfare suite, six DAS infrared cameras that let pilots see through the cockpit floor, and the MADL data link. The program's $2 trillion estimate runs to 2088, with about half reflecting projected inflation.

• Early F-35B airframes cracked, the F-35C tailhook bounced over arresting wires, and fuel tanks proved vulnerable to lightning strikes.
• An F-35A costs about $92 million, while an F-35B runs over $121 million.
• The United Kingdom is the sole Tier 1 partner; Turkey was removed after buying a Russian air defense system.
• Israel flies a customized F-35I Adir and was the first to use the jet in combat, in 2018.
• The F-35A is certified to carry the B61 nuclear bomb, and the fleet is planned to fly until 2088.