The U.S. Air Force would receive enough money to purchase 51 F-35A fighter jets in fiscal 2024 under the compromise Pentagon spending bill lawmakers released Thursday — three greater than the service originally requested.
If enacted, the allotment would mark essentially the most Joint Strike Fighters the Air Force has bought in a single yr since 2021, when it procured 60. The service had included 48 F-35As in its fiscal 2024 budget request.
The FY24 defense appropriations bill would supply the Air Force greater than $5.2 billion for F-35A procurement, a rise of nearly $361 million over the unique budget request. This system increase of three additional F-35As would account for $277 million of that growth.
The acquisition would still remain far below the minimum annual buy of 72 F-35s the service argued for years it needed to modernize its fighter fleet, while maintaining with the pace of older jets leaving the inventory. The Air Force plans to purchase greater than 1,700 F-35As, totaling nearly $250 billion, over the lifetime of this system, in line with FY25 budget documents.
Congress in FY24 also looks to provide the Marine Corps and Navy funds for 16 short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing F-35Bs in addition to 19 F-35Cs, which might take off and land from aircraft carriers.
F-35 fighters act as combat quarterbacks, conducting airstrikes in addition to vacuuming up data on other nearby military assets and communications to share with the remaining of the joint force. This system stays the Defense Department’s costliest at greater than $1.7 trillion to purchase, operate and sustain.
Boosting spending on the Pentagon’s most advanced fighter jet is one piece of Congress’ agreement to place greater than $40 billion toward militarywide aviation procurement in FY24 — $3 billion above the initial request, appropriators said in a legislative summary.
Congress would also approve the Air Force’s request to purchase 24 F-15EX Eagle II fighters for $2.4 billion, seven MH-139 Grey Wolf patrol helicopters for $223 million and 15 KC-46A Pegasus refueling tankers for $2.8 billion.
The bill also offers an additional $840 million to buy eight additional C-130J airlifters that will replace an older version flown by the Air National Guard; and $400 million to purchase 10 HH-60W combat search and rescue helicopters, rebuffing the service’s plan to stop procurement.
And appropriators would supply $1.6 billion for procurement related to the Air Force’s B-21 Raider stealth bomber, about $55 million shy of its request due to a classified reduction. It’s unclear what number of aircraft which may fund; the stealth bomber was approved to start low-rate production last fall.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are pledging $2.3 billion to completely fund development of the F-35′s successor, referred to as the Next Generation Air Dominance program, and to further mature drone wingmen under the collaborative combat aircraft initiative.
Lawmakers on Friday were still scrambling to pass the FY24 defense budget ahead of a midnight deadline to fund the federal government or enter a shutdown.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
Rachel Cohen is the editor of Air Force Times. She joined the publication as its senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared within the Washington Post, the Frederick News-Post (Md.), Air and Space Forces Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy and elsewhere.