Lockheed holding steady on F-35 production rate, exec says

DUBAI AIRSHOW and BERLIN — When asked whether Lockheed Martin plans to increase the production rate of the F-35 stealth fighter, Steve Sheehy, vice president of aeronautics strategy and business development had a simple answer: “At this moment, no.”

“Can we? The answer is yes,” he told a group of reporters Tuesday here at the Dubai Airshow.

Lockheed’s F-35 has been in high demand for years, and its customer base continues to grow. On Monday in Washington, President Donald Trump revealed that the US intends to greenlight the sale of the advanced fighters to Saudi Arabia, which, if finalized, would grant Riyadh membership in a community of 20 international operators and join a crowded production queue. 

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The US Air Force in a recent document also laid out a projection for the F-35 program, but one that would require a steep increase in manufacturing: By fiscal 2030, Lockheed could annually produce 100 F-35As for the service alone. According to the document, the Air Force must max out production of both the F-35 and Boeing F-15EX to achieve “acceptable” levels of risk, though doing so would require additional funding that ultimately may not come through.  

Scaling production of the F-35 to the rate the Air Force document describes would require a hefty surge in the fighter’s supply base, where, for example, the program’s recent deal for production Lot 19 featured just 40 jets for the Air Force alone. Asked about the manufacturing projection, an Air Force official previously told Breaking Defense that industry’s ability to achieve the figure carries a “healthy amount of skepticism.” 

Lockheed in recent years has maintained that it can build 156 copies annually of the tri-variant stealth fighter, the bulk of them F-35As. Sheehy said Tuesday that figure is not the “max number” but is the “smart” one established in cooperation with the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office, cautioning the dangers of “whipsaw supply.” The current production rate, he added, is set to promote “economic stability.” 

Air Force officials have previously discussed the fighter’s center fuselage as a limiting factor in increasing its production, while company executives have separately noted that adding the German company Rheinmetall as a second source for the fuselages could bump up yearly output to roughly 165 units. However, Sheehy said Tuesday, “the center fuselage is not a bottleneck any longer. So that’s not it.”

“It’s not just a single issue,” he added. “We want to keep our suppliers at a steady rate.” 

Some F-35 customers this year have publicly wobbled on the platform, with Canada weighing a different path forward due to tensions with the Trump administration. Switzerland, for its part, is reevaluating its planned acquisition over a cost dispute.

“We are in constant communication with all of our customers out there, ones that are in the media, ones that are not in the media,” Sheehy said when asked how Lockheed was working to hold on to customers who’ve shown signs of cold feet. 

“Sometimes it’s capability questions, sometimes it’s jobs questions, and what the economic benefit is,” he said. “And we’re answering all of those questions.”

Meanwhile, at the Berlin Security Conference, a Lockheed Martin exec for its Europe arm spoke to Breaking Defense about where Switzerland is with its reevaluation of the fighter jet.

“I cannot say anything on that fixed price [dispute]” because it is a government-to-government discussion, Dennis Goge, Lockheed’s chief executive and vice president for Europe, said. “But the only thing I can tell you is that we are in close cooperation with the US government on this, and also with the Swiss customer … the stuff that’s on us, for example, on the offset side, we are delivering.”

Asked if Lockheed has given any consideration to opening a second F-35 final assembly line in Europe amid the continent’s growing interest in additional aircraft, Goge said it would be a US government decision but, “from what we are seeing in terms of demand … with the lines that are available in the US and in Italy plus Japan, I think we are well suited, and so we are good.”