Key Points – The F-35 fighter jet program is facing mixed news this week. Pratt & Whitney announced at the Paris Air Show that a planned engine core upgrade has been delayed by a year, with its critical design review now set for mid-2026.
-This comes as the Pentagon’s 2026 budget request proposes slashing the US Air Force’s F-35 order in half to free up funds for the next-generation F-47 fighter.
-However, the F-35’s reputation received a significant boost from its combat performance, with Israel’s customized F-35I “Adir” playing a “critical and highly successful” role in the recent strikes against Iran.
F-35 Doing Great vs. Iran: But We Have Engine Upgrade Drama
A planned engine upgrade to the F-35 fighter jet has been delayed, with that upgrade reaching “critical design review” in the middle of 2026.
According to Defense One, which cited Pratt & Whitney, this is a year later than previously announced.
The upgrade was planned to reach the F-35 fleet by 2029, but that could be delayed as well, according to the report.
“We were working the timeline with the JPO because many things have to come in place: obviously, I have to design, develop the engine, test it, deliver the hardware, all of that. But you also have certification with the jet, so we’re working very closely with Lockheed and the JPO on that timing. So we’ll see how that ends up,” Jill Albertelli, president of military engines for Pratt & Whitney, told Defense One at the Paris Air Show this week.
The reason for the delay has not been revealed.
Budgeting for the F-35
According to another Defense One report earlier this month, the Pentagon’s spending request included halving its planned F-35 buy, with more funding for the sixth-generation F-47 fighter jet. The request is for 24 F-35s, compared to the 44 that were ordered in the previous fiscal year.
Bloomberg News had described that cut as “a blow to Lockheed Martin.”
“The scaling back of the F-35 request may reflect one way the service is revising its funding for fiscal 2026 to comply with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to reduce projected US military spending by 8% over the next five years,” Bloomberg said.
However, those requests might not end up in the final funding figures, since that will likely depend on the ongoing reconciliation legislation process.
Per Defense One, the process has been unorthodox, coming “without the typical public release and background briefings for press.”
“For the Air Force, total procurement in 2026 would reach $54.2 billion, plus another $9.7 billion in the reconciliation bill. The baseline request is down for the 2025 enacted budget, which allocated $55.8 billion for service procurement,” the Defense One report said.
A Good Week for the F-35
However, the F-35 is in the news for another reason: Its use by Israel in its attacks on the Iranian nuclear program, which began about a week ago.
Israel has been using a modified version of the jet, which it calls the F-35I “Adir.” Israel was permitted to customize the jets beyond what has typically been the case. There has been speculation, unconfirmed, that Israel has modified the jets to the point where they no longer require fuel tank support.
Justin Bronk, an airpower expert at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, told Business Insider earlier this week that “the F-35I has been a critical and highly successful leading edge capability in the overall Israeli air campaign at every stage.”
Per Newsweek, the F-35 program was mocked last year by Elon Musk, who at the time was gearing up to launch DOGE and swing the axe at federal programs. Musk dismissed the F-35 as “obsolete” and a “jack of all trades, master of none.”
The success of Israel in using the F-35 in its Iran campaign appears to have proven Musk wrong, on that point.
“Those who suggest that uncrewed systems alone can replace what fighter aircraft do fundamentally do not understand what makes them such a flexible and potentially decisive military tool,” Bronk told Newsweek.
“It’s one thing to simulate uncrewed aircraft doing dogfighting in a clean, test environment,” Bronk added in the Newsweek story. ”It’s another to trust them in the electromagnetic chaos of modern combat, where jamming, deception, and dense airspace demand flexibility.”
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