An unclassified U.S. Air Power report, mandated by the 2025 NDAA, included figures of the required fight fleet, calling for a rise of almost 300 jets.
The U.S. Air Power wants a complete of 1,558 combat-coded jets, almost 300 greater than its present fleet of 1,271 in fiscal yr 2026, which could possibly be supported by U.S. aerospace majors climbing their manufacturing numbers. These figures, and a number of commercial and operational preparedness suggestions had been part of an unclassified U.S. Air Power report, mandated by the 2025 NDAA (Nationwide Protection Authorization Act) and to be submitted yearly till 2029.
Breaking Protection and Inside Protection had been the primary to report about this after acquiring the report, and specified that the doc doesn’t search further funding. Nonetheless, it recommends alternative routes to allocate and prioritize cash to spice up fighter manufacturing and “encourage lawmakers to think about offering higher assets to the service.”
Attaining the figures talked about within the doc is at present not possible, owing to a number of protection industrial, worldwide protection gross sales, gear wants of the opposite companies, and basic price range constraints. It might but be ideally suited and per the Trump administration’s Interim Nationwide Protection Strategic Steerage.
To succeed in the aim of 1,558 jets over the following 10 years and procure fighters at a higher fee, the service concludes a goal stock of 1,369 plane could possibly be reached by “early 2030.” Nonetheless, it additionally warns it might nonetheless be unaffordable owing to competing modernization wants.
U.S. Air Power, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Marine Corps, together with U.S. Military Patriot missile batteries line up on the runway for an elephant stroll throughout a routine operational readiness train at Kadena Air Base, Japan, Could 6, 2025. pic.twitter.com/eE0VQrw75A
— U.S. Forces Japan (@USForcesJapan) Could 7, 2025
Rising F-35 and F-15EX manufacturing numbers
Quoting the report, Breaking Protection mentioned that the federal government can “meet acceptable army threat milestones by 2030” by climbing procurement of the Boeing F-15EX and Lockheed Martin F-35A. Boeing can contact an annual manufacturing fee of two dozen F-15EXs by FY27, increasing to 36 jets with “further funding for services.”
The Air Power’s present plan for 129 F-15EXs, of which 126 anticipated by the tip of 2030, itself is “9 months delayed.” Among the many causes for the delay are the labor strikes at Boeing’s plant which closely impacted manufacturing, with staff now on strike for over 12 weeks.
Boeing’s Vice President for Fighters Mark Sears informed Breaking Protection the corporate expects the F-15 manufacturing line to be energetic nicely into the following decade, with the plane working by means of the 2050s, whereas the corporate plans to “double output to 24 plane within the coming years.” This implies its current capability is 12 airframes yearly.
The Air Power’s F-35A program of file has remained unchanged at 1,763 plane below the Trump administration, with the doc stating that Lockheed might churn out 100 F-35As a yr by FY30. General, as we defined beforehand, the U.S. Air Power, Marine Corps and Navy have about roughly 600 F-35s, based mostly on some new deliveries and numbers counted up till the tip of 2024.
Of those, 385 had been Air Power’s jets, with that quantity now elevated after the five hundredth F-35A was delivered to the service in August 2025. These numbers are anticipated to additional rise by the tip of the yr.
The U.S. Air Power’s F-22 Raptor fleet in the meantime stands at 180 airframes, with 32 in an older configuration largely used for flight testing and coaching. Efforts are underway to improve the Raptor with a brand new IRST pod, stealthy gasoline tanks, and a number of different digital, avionic and software program upgrades.
The report additionally touches upon the F-47 NGAD, noting that the sixth-generation jet’s manufacturing strains are set to open quickly. Boeing revealed lately that one instance is already below manufacturing. Whereas it referred to as it the “primary modernization precedence,” the unclassified model of the doc didn’t embrace a procurement determine.
F-35 numbers and manufacturing
In an Oct. 21, 2025 earnings name, Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet revealed that, in the course of the third quarter of 2025, the corporate delivered 46 F-35 Lightning II plane, and now expects to finish a complete of “175 to 190 deliveries” by the tip of the yr. The corporate has delivered over 1,200 F-35s globally, amassing over a million flight hours.
Taiclet additionally talked about the definitized Lot 18 and 19 contract. It will see the corporate constructing as much as 296 F-35s for the U.S. companies, worldwide companions and International Army Gross sales (FMS) prospects, with first deliveries in 2026. The brand new $12.5 billion Sep. 29, 2025 contract modification had elevated Lot 18 to 148 plane and added 148 F-35s as a part of Lot 19. Of those, 105 are A variants, with simply 40 meant for the U.S. Air Power and 65 for international consumers.
Furthermore, the corporate’s efforts to hurry up F-35 deliveries additionally come amid diminished F-35 acquisition within the FY2026 price range, because the plane contributes about 30% of its income. The Air Power would procure solely 24 F-35As in 2026 for roughly $4 billion, lower than the 44 F-35s, costing $4.8 billion, the Air Power is on observe to purchase this yr, and the 51 jets, value $5.5 billion, the service purchased in 2024.
Gen. 4 and 4.5 fleet
The U.S. Gen. 4 and 4.5 fleet, in keeping with a Feb. 2025 report by the Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Research, has been outlined as ”far too small to fulfill its operational necessities.” Furthermore, “the typical ages of its fighters and bombers have reached unprecedented highs, and its readiness to combat tonight stays at a historic low.”
That is owing to “many years of underfunding and delayed modernization, a development that continues at present.” The gradual drawdown started within the Nineties after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
That report thus referred to as for establishing the logistics and laid the conceptual basis for working a wide range of air-to-air, assault, digital warfare and ISR CCAs to make up for the autumn in numbers. The USAF report additionally recommends “extra funding” in sustaining the plane, Breaking Protection mentioned, pointing to an annual shortfall of $400 million for its plane upkeep contract fund.
