F-35A

F-35A Lightning II

The most-produced fifth-generation fighter. Its design runs opposite to the F-22's — trading peak flight performance for sensor fusion, multirole capability, and affordable scale.

Origin: United States
Status: In Service
First flight: 2006-12-15
Introduced: 2016-08-02
Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin

Overview

The F-35A is the air force variant of the Joint Strike Fighter programme, first flown in 2006 and declared combat-capable in August 2016. It is frequently compared with the F-22, but the two were built for different jobs: the F-22 is a high-performance air superiority platform; the F-35 was designed from the outset to be fielded in quantity at affordable cost, for strike and battlespace awareness.

Single-engined, with a 10.7 m span and no supercruise, it trails the F-22 on the traditional metrics. What it has that the F-22 never did is the situational awareness built from its distributed aperture system, AESA radar, and datalinks — and a fleet spread across more than fifteen countries. Asking which of the two is "better" is asking the wrong question.

Design

The stocky airframe is a consequence of commonality: the F-35B's lift fan needs vertical volume amidships, and the F-35C needs strengthened gear and a larger wing. The Air Force F-35A needs neither, yet inherited the fuselage shape defined to accommodate them — the aerodynamic price of a three-variant family.

The inlets are diverterless, dispensing with the traditional boundary-layer splitter and bleed system to save weight and reduce signature, at the cost of high-speed performance. Maximum speed is Mach 1.6, well below the F-22.

The real difference is not aerodynamic. The distributed aperture system's six infrared sensors give spherical coverage; combined with the AN/APG-81 radar and MADL datalinks, every aircraft in a formation shares one picture of the battlespace. No row in a specification table expresses the value of that, which is why this aircraft is so often underrated.

Timeline

2001-10-26
X-35 wins the JSF competition
Selected over the Boeing X-32 for the Joint Strike Fighter programme.
2006-12-15
First flight of the F-35A
2016-08-02
U.S. Air Force declares initial operational capability
2018-05
First combat sortie
Flown by an Israeli Air Force F-35I, ahead of the type's first U.S. combat use.

Variants

F-35AIn Service
The air force variant — the most numerous and least expensive of the three, and the only one with an internal gun.
F-35BIn Service
Fitted with a lift fan for operation from amphibious ships and short runways. Internal fuel and payload are reduced by the volume the lift system occupies.
F-35CIn Service
Larger wing and strengthened landing gear for catapult launch and arrested recovery. The largest span and longest range of the three.

Specifications

Dimensions

Length: 15.70 m¹
Wingspan: 10.70 m¹
Height: 4.38 m¹
Wing Area: 42.7 m²²

Weights

Empty Weight: 13,290 kg¹
Max Takeoff Weight: 31,800 kg¹
Internal Fuel Fuel carried internally. Critical for stealth aircraft, since external tanks compromise low observability.: 8,278 kg¹
Internal fuel approaches the F-22's despite a noticeably smaller airframe — volume freed up by not chasing supersonic performance.
Max Weapon Payload: 8,160 kg¹

Propulsion

Engine Count: 1¹
Afterburning Thrust (per engine): 191 kN^1,3
The F135 is the highest-thrust engine fitted to any fighter in service.
Engine: One Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 afterburning turbofan¹

Performance

Max Speed (high altitude): Ma 1.60¹
Service Ceiling: 15,240 m¹
Combat Radius Definitions differ widely by loadout, flight profile, and loiter time. Always check the mission-profile note before comparing across aircraft.: 1,239 km¹
The USAF figure, on internal fuel with internal weapons. One of the few combat radius numbers published with a stated basis.
Ferry Range: 2,800 km¹

Signature

Frontal RCS RCS varies drastically with frequency, polarization, and aspect angle, and no operator publishes real figures. Values here are open-source estimates — treat them as orders of magnitude, not precise numbers.: 0.0015 m²[0.001–0.005 m²]^5,2
Never officially released. Open estimates generally place it above the F-22 while still very low. As with all RCS figures, treat it as an order of magnitude only.

Sensors

Fire-Control Radar: AN/APG-81 active electronically scanned array¹
Electro-Optical Targeting: AN/AAQ-40 Electro-Optical Targeting System, faired into the lower nose²
IRST: AN/AAQ-37 Distributed Aperture System — six infrared sensors giving spherical coverage²
Data Link: MADL multifunction advanced datalink, with Link 16 interoperability²

Armament

Internal Weapon Bays: 2¹
Internal Bay Payload Weapon weight carried while remaining in stealth configuration — the figure that actually bounds a stealth aircraft’s strike capacity.: 2,600 kg²
Weapon load carried in stealth configuration. Block 4 increases the number of weapons per bay.
Gun Rounds: 182¹
The internal GAU-22/A 25 mm gun carries far fewer rounds than the F-22's, reflecting the gun's lower priority in the F-35's mission set.
Gun: GAU-22/A 25 mm four-barrel rotary cannon¹

Cost

Unit Cost Costs may be flyaway, procurement, or lifecycle, and vary heavily by year and lot. Always check the basis and year in the note.: 82.5 M$[78–110 M$]^4,2
Recent lots have a flyaway price around the $80 million mark, but figures including engine, spares, and lifetime sustainment are far higher. Any unit cost comparison requires matching the basis.

Production & Service

Total Built: 1,100[1,000–1,200]⁴
All three variants combined; production is ongoing.

References

1
F-35A Lightning II Fact Sheet
U.S. Air Force·Government·United States
2
F-35 Lightning II product information
Lockheed Martin·Manufacturer·United States
3
F135 Engine Product Page
Pratt & Whitney·Manufacturer·United States
4
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — programme cost and schedule reporting
U.S. Government Accountability Office·Government·United States
5
Trends in Air-to-Air Combat — Implications for Future Air Superiority
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments·Institute·United States·2015-04-14