We Dodged a Bullet! The F-35 Fighter Jet is Turning into a $2 Trillion Headache! Can Elon Musk Fix the F-35 Programme?

The external debt of the USA is $36,219,482,820,968; if we summarise such abundant figures in writing, we can say that it is approximately $36 trillion.

The Total Revenues of the USA in 2023 are $4.4 Trillion and Total Expenditures are $6.1 Trillion, with a budget deficit of $1.7 Trillion.

This rapidly growing imbalance between revenues and expenditures is leading to ever-increasing annual budget deficits, and as a result, the US economy is about to fall from the edge of the cliff into the void, and serious measures must be taken.

Donald Trump, a US president intent on closing this deficit, has been sworn in. He also seems to intend to start closing the deficit by cutting US government spending. For this purpose, he also created a new ministry called the Ministry of Government Efficiency.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, who was chosen by President Trump to lead this new ministry, seems to start increasing the efficiency of government spending with the F-35 fighter jet, which turned into a fiasco-35.

Musk, who is an outspoken person; He thinks that the F-35 fighter jet is an old and poorly functioning weapon system and that it would be more effective and much more economical to fulfil its mission by crewless aircraft.

The main problem is that the life cycle cost of the F-35 will cost the US $ 2 Trillion

Depending on the freedom Musk is given, his views on the F-35 could have important consequences for this massive programme.

Musk expressed his latest criticisms of the F-35 in a post on X, the social media site he owns. He said the fighter jet is a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ because it ‘has to be too many things for too many people’ and is the result of a ‘broken’ requirements system. In a separate post, he described the F-35 as ‘the worst military value money in history ’.

Musk perhaps relies too much on autonomous technology and is criticised a lot on this issue, but in fact, the future of aviation is shaping in this direction. Moreover; Elon Musk even said that F-35 manufacturers are ‘stupid’ for continuing to produce manned jets at a time when drone technology is on the rise.

‘Crewed fighter jets are an inefficient way to extend the range of missiles or drop bombs. A reusable drone can do this without a human pilot in the cockpit.’

‘Stealth (invisibility and/or low visibility) also means nothing, ’ he added, saying it is ‘ridiculously easy’ to shoot down fighter jets.

Musk is ready to act on his criticisms. In addition to being a close adviser to President-elect Trump, he is tasked with finding ways to cut billions of dollars from the federal budget. Because his main task will be to ensure the efficiency of government spending.

Is the Efficiency of the F-35 a priority target for the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)?

It is not yet clear whether Musk intends to use his new position to influence any plans or costs for the F-35, the Pentagon's most expensive fighter jet programme to date.

Writing with Vivek Ramaswamy, who will lead Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency with him, Musk said, ‘The Pentagon recently failed its seventh consecutive audit. This shows that the institution's managers have little idea of how its annual budget of more than $ 800 billion is spent.’

Musk and Ramaswamy wrote that their department's goal is to ‘eliminate the massive waste, fraud and abuse that almost all taxpayers want to end.’

As for the F-35, the cost of the stealth jet developed by Lockheed Martin has reached about $485 billion after a 10% increase this year, when the Pentagon said it needed to improve engine cooling.

Of the total of more than 3,000 aircraft planned for production over the life of the F-35 programme, about 1,000 have been delivered to the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

The operational life of the F-35 is estimated to last until 2088, and the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) expects the continued production and sustainment of the F-35 programme to cost the US more than $2 trillion.

Musk emphasises that the US should consider remotely piloted alternatives to manned jets, both to keep pace with the rise in drone warfare and to help keep Air Force procurement competitive.

Musk Said"F-35 Stealth Fighter Jets Are Expensive and Old! ’ Is He Talking Nonsense or Pointing to a Hidden Point?

The F-35 programme has endured delays, cost overruns and controversy throughout its 25-year history.

The USAF is in the process of rethinking its approach to air superiority. The Next Generation Air Dominance manned fighter aircraft, long seen as the key to the future of air superiority, is being examined in terms of the technologies and costs involved.

The plan to buy 1.763 F-35s could be scaled back due to very high operating costs. This has nothing to do with the Elon Musk tweet. The USAF already has about 450 F-35As. Lockheed Martin hopes to reduce the cost of operations per hour from about US $ 40,000 to US $ 25,000 by 2025 through performance-based logistics and other measures.

Rationalisation of defence spending can be done in many other ways. There is already a Government Accountability Office that monitors the F-35 and other programmes. If there are gaps, they can be closed.

The Pentagon certainly needs to be made more accountable. The debate should not be ‘F-35 or UAVs’ but ‘F-35 and how many UAVs’.

Conclusion:

It seems that the F-35 will be talked about a lot and will remain on the agenda. It seems that the most disturbing issue for the US government regarding the F-35 is not the purchase cost, but the maintenance and operation cost.

Although it seems mathematically impossible to close the trade deficit, which is approaching two trillion dollars annually, totalling 36 trillion dollars, there are two things to do to reduce it; increasing revenues and reducing expenditures.

Since making inefficient expenditures efficient is a measure to reduce expenditures, it is imperative to scrutinise the F-35 programme, which leads the world in inefficiency.

If the US fails to make this programme efficient, its first move will be to market and sell as many of these aircraft as possible to as many of its allies as possible. In this way, the US will alleviate the cost that falls on the US with the purchase and maintenance-maintenance costs that it will impose on its allies.

As Turkey, we should be prepared to return to this programme, of which we were a partner but were removed from the partnership under CAATSA measures, in a very short time, or even be forced to do so.