Rare F-35C Fighter Lost in Crash: Why is the U.S. Navy Planning to Expand Orders For More?

A U.S. Navy F-35C fighter has crashed at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California, with the pilot having ejected safely. The incident occurred in the late hours of July 30, with the Air Station reporting:

“NAS Lemoore can confirm an aviation incident on the Operations side of the installation. At 18:30, an F-35C attached to the VFA-125 [Strike Fighter Squadron 125] “Rough Raiders” went down not far from NAS Lemoore. NAS Lemoore can confirm the pilot successfully ejected and is safe. There are no additional affected personnel. The cause of the incident is under investigation.”

Although the F-35’s safety record has been impressive compared to preceding fourth generation fighters it was developed to replace, the few crashes that have taken place have gained significant media attention, largely due to both the program’s high profile and to the unusual causes for some of the incidents.

The F-35 has at times suffered from crashes due to glitches with its unprecedentedly complex software, with a notable example being the crash of a U.S. Air Force F-35A at Hill Air Force Base in Utah on October 19, 2022. This was revealed by an Air Force investigation to have crashed due to a software issue, as the aircraft stopped responding to the pilot’s attempts at manual control, and instead sharply banking to the left and ignored his efforts to abort the landing sequence. An F-35 test pilot who witnessed the incident from the ground told investigators that the aircraft “looked like a totally normal F-35 before obviously going out of control…. I did see really large flight control surface movements — [stabilisers], trailing edge flaps, rudders all seem to be moving pretty rapidly.” Alongside software issues, production defects such as quality control issues with fuel tubes have caused accidents in the past. The high levels of automation on the aircraft have made crashes due to pilot error exceptionally rare.

The F-35C has been produced in much smaller numbers than the F-35A developed for the Air Force and the F-35B built for the Marine Corps, and is the largest F-35 variant due to its much wider wings. This wingspan makes the aircraft heavier and reduces its thrust/weight ratio, but also allows it to position itself for landings on carrier decks more easily, and to store significantly more fuel to match the range of the larger F-18E/F fighter it was developed to succeed. F-35C numbers crossed 100 fighters only in late 2024, more than six years after the class entered service, accounting for less than 10 percent of F-35s built. This small number is split between the Navy and the Marine Corps. The Navy was previously expected to procure the F-35C in only limited numbers, while investing much more heavily in the fourth generation F-18E/F and in a sixth generation fighter developed under the F/A-XX program. The recent defunding of the F/A-XX, meaning a next generation carrier based fighters may only become available after 2040, is expected to lead the Navy to attribute significantly greater value to the F-35 and to significantly increase the number of F-35Cs it plans to procure.