Sign In
Search
Congress

U.S. Fighter Fleet Will Expand By 2040 But More Stealth Aircraft Will Mean Less Availability, CBO Says

Cal Biesecker By
SHARE:
U.S. Fighter Fleet Will Expand By 2040 But More Stealth Aircraft Will Mean Less Availability, CBO Says
Pictured is a U.S. Air Force photo of Luke AFB, Ariz. F-35A fighters in flight.

The number of fighter aircraft in the U.S. military inventory will decline over the next few years before expanding to a greater number than currently, but their availability for operational use will decline as stealthy—though difficult to maintain—F-35s make up a greater portion of the fleet, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says in a new report. The fighter fleet used by the Defense Department was about 3,500 aircraft in 2025, and that number will shrink to about 3,000 aircraft in…

Subscriber-only content. Please log in below.

Not a subscriber or registered user yet?

Please contact us at clientservices@accessintel.com or call us at 888-707-5814 (Monday – Thursday 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. and Friday 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET.), to start a free trial, get pricing information, order a reprint, or post an article link on your website.

Recommended

Army

Lockheed Martin Unveils PAC-3 Edge; Advances In Army’s Future Interceptor Program

Advanced / Transformational Technology

Power Systems Startup Stellios Exits Stealth With $5 Million Pre-Seed Round

Business/Financial

Deep Tapped As Next CEO Of General Dynamics; Novakovic Will Be Executive Chair

Advanced / Transformational Technology

Overland AI Unveils IBEX Autonomous Ground Vehicle For Marine Corps MADIS Program

Trending

Sikorsky’s Unmanned U-Hawk Enters Flight Test Program, Sees ‘More Interest’ From Marines
U.S. Space Force Forecasts Buy of 32 to 56 Meadowlands Jammers
Raytheon Receives Space Force Radar Contract For Missile Defense
U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence Wants Recon Drones With Multiple Sensors
BAE Systems Unveils Prototype High Power Microwave System For Killing Drone Swarms

Congress Updates

Budget

Hegseth Pushes For Reconciliation With At Least $350 Billion For Defense ‘Regardless’ Of Midterms Outcome

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday the Trump administration plans to continue its push for at least $350 billion in defense funds via the reconciliation process “regardless of what happens […]

Congress

Bipartisan Push in Senate to Hasten Export of 155 mm, GMLRS, HIMARS for Ukraine

A small, bipartisan group of senators is backing the Fast Tracking European Investment in Ukraine’s Defense Act, S. 5175, to hasten the export of allied buys of U.S. munitions for […]

Congress

Rep. Himes Signals Increased Contractor Oversight, if Democrats Win House

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, plans to increase the committee’s contractor oversight if the Democrats win control of the House […]

Congress

CBO Estimates Loss of One-Half to Two-Thirds of U.S. Missile Interceptors Since June Last Year

A new Congressional Budget Office report estimates the cost of the Iran war through Aug. 1 as $38 billion and says that the U.S. has likely depleted between one-half and […]

The Force Multipliers

Force Multipliers

Michael Harrison – SANS Institute

Force Multipliers

Michael DiOrio – Dataminr

Force Multipliers

Arne Brinck – Dark Wolf Solutions

Force Multipliers

Jags Kandasamy – Latent AI

Job Feed

Post a Job // Post a Resume