dailynewsnblog
The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II are the 5th-generation fighter jets currently in service in the United States Air Force. These remain cutting-edge and are generally considered the most advanced fighter jets in the world. Even so, the F-22 has lost some of its edge, and so the United States Air Force is currently developing the 6th-generation F-47 to replace it.
But which of these jets costs more? The short answer is the F-22, while the longer answer is more complicated, and a meaningful comparison can’t be made between them. The F-22 Raptor is more expensive than the F-35 on every metric, although it was originally intended to be a cutting-edge “spared no expense” bespoke platform. The F-35 was designed to be affordable for a greater range of customers and for those customers to be able to afford an acceptable number of jets.
Economies Of Scale
Only 187 serial examples of the F-22 Raptor were ever produced. Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin has delivered over 1,200 F-35s and this year along it may ship more F-35s than F-22s were produced. The F-35 program has made it into mass production, and there are thousands more F-35s on order or expected to be ordered. This has given the F-35 a highly coveted economies of scale. Not only has this smoothed out the per-unit development overhead, but it has enabled Lockheed to get really good at producing the F-35.
The per-unit fly-away cost of the F-35A is now sometimes lower than that of 4.5th-generation fighter jets like the F-15EX, Eurofighter, and Rafale. That said, sustainment costs tend to be greater. Economies of scale is not a luxury the F-22 got to enjoy. Not only did the USAF slash its original expected purchase from 750 to 187, but Congress also banned the export of the F-22. The F-35’s costs are reduced thanks to other nations paying for it.
The massive development expense of Raptor has to be shared by the 187 serial production models. This has the effect of significantly driving up its per-unit costs compared with the F-35. This also means its replacement parts are more niche and expensive, and the type needs to sustain a specialized maintenance and training pipeline. That also drives up the per-unit cost compared with the F-35.
How Many F-22 Raptors Are Left?
The US Air Force only procured a fraction of the Raptors it had wanted, but these are now being upgraded to stay the best in class.
Latest Costs For The F-35
According to F35.com, the average flyaway costs for Production Lots 15 through 17 were $82.5 million for the conventional F-35A, $109 million for the STOVL F-35B, and $102 million for the carrier-based F-35C. The site adds, “Lockheed Martin has significantly lowered our share of cost per flight hour over the last five years” without providing numbers.
However, as with all fighter jets and the numbers thrown around by defense contractors, these numbers need to be taken with caution. There is often plenty of marketing and accounting trickery going on. This is very true of the JAS 39 Gripen fighter jet, which is not nearly as cheap as is frequently reported. A “flyaway” aircraft is not a combat-worthy one. Except for the Austrians with their weird Eurofighter purchase, the real price that air forces need to pay is that of a combat-worthy aircraft, not a “flyaway” aircraft.
|
F-22 & F-35 by the numbers |
|
|---|---|
|
F-35s produced (2025) |
1,200+ |
|
F-22 produced |
187 |
|
F-35 flyaway cost |
$87 to $135 million |
|
F-22 flyaway cost |
$135 to $350 million |
|
F-35 cost per flight hour |
Approx. $42,000 (per GAO) |
|
F-22 cost per flight hour |
Approx. $85,000 (per GAO) |
Air & Space Forces Magazine reported in August 2025, “Combined with the cost of otherwise fully equipped F-35 airframes in Lot 18, that puts the cost of an F-35 at $101.5 million. DOD and F-35 maker Lockheed Martin agreed in December on a deal not to exceed $11.76 billion for 145 aircraft, an average cost of $81.1 million.” The average cost of the F-35’s Pratt & Whitney F135 engine is around $20.4 million.
Per Unit Costs For The F-22 Raptor
When it comes to the F-22, the per-unit cost is even more difficult to calculate. Prices reported online range from $137 million to as much as $340 million. The range is partly down to how the fly-away cost is calculated. In addition, the F-22 has been out of production since 2011. So while the latest F-35 flyaway costs are current, F-22 numbers should be adjusted to reflect 14 years of inflation.
The F-22 was a “cost-is-no-object” type of project. It was never intended to compete on price. It was designed to be the best of the best and be a “silver bullet” for the United States Air Force. This was fine in the context of the Cold War when the US wanted to have a technological edge over the Soviet Union. However, after the collapse of the USSR, the program appeared expensive and completely over-engineered for the diminished threat environment the US then faced.
In 2014, the think-tank, RAND, estimated that the average estimated average unit flyaway cost of the first 100 units was $217 for the F-22 and $185 for the F-35. Adjusting for inflation, this would be $297 million and $254 million, respectively, in 2025 dollars. This estimate puts the per-unit cost of the F-22 much closer to the F-35. The large difference today is likely due to the sheer economies of scale that the F-35 enjoys that the F-22 never did, which has brought down the cost of the jet.
How Many F-35s Are In Service With The US Air Force?
The US Air Force has over 400 and perhaps closer to 500 F-35s in inventory, while Lockheed has delivered over 1,000 F-35s in total.
Why The F-22 Raptor Will Not Go Back Into Production
Given that the F-22 is out of production, the cost of purchasing new aircraft is redundant. The aircraft will never go back into production because of two major factors. One is that it is incredibly difficult to restart a production line after it has shut down. The tooling is gone, the know-how has withered, and the subcontractors have moved on.
The other major factor is that even though the F-22 Raptor remains the world’s most formidable air superiority fighter jet, it is already obsolete by the fact that the United States Air Force is already developing its successor, the F-47. Restarting the F-22 would be immensely expensive and would take many years. The resulting F-22 would likely be a modernized Raptor that would be less capable, but also potentially more expensive than the F-47. It might even arrive after the first F-47 units are delivered (around 2030).
It makes better sense to talk about the costs of upgrading the Air Force’s existing fleet of 142 combat-coded Raptors. There are also discussions of the Air Force upgrading its older 32 Block 20 training variants to be combat-coded. The Air Force is currently spending tens of millions upgrading each combat-coded Raptor to keep them relevant into the 2040s.
Two Jets With Two Different Roles
The F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II are different jets built for very different roles. While both are stealthy, highly advanced fighters designed to get the first shot in any engagement, they are not directly comparable. The F-22 Raptor was developed as an air dominance fighter; it is designed to excel in the air-to-air role. The F-22 has been adapted as a multirole platform, including in a ground strike role, but its primary role is air superiority.
Meanwhile, the F-35 is designed as a much more flexible multirole fighter jet with particular emphasis on stealthy deep strike missions penetrating enemy air defense. The F-35 is excellent for SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defense) and DEAD (Destruction of Enemy Air Defense). That said, it is limited by the munitions it can carry internally if it wants to preserve its stealth profile. However, it can leverage 4th-generation fighters to great effect.
The F-35 also comes in three variants, including the F-35B STOVL variant that can land vertically. The F-35 is much more versatile than the F-22, able to do more missions in a conflict. The F-22 is very specialized in air superiority. To ask whether the F-22 or F-35 costs more is a bit like asking if an SUV or coupe costs more. They are different vehicles built for different things.
The F-22 Raptor Has Much Greater Costs Per Flight Hour
Perhaps the most relevant comparable cost between the F-22 and F-35 is the cost per flight hour. Estimating per-hour flying costs is extremely difficult due to a range of factors, including that not all estimates are consistent in the costs they tally. Still, it appears that the Raptor costs at least double to fly as the F-35, and may cost over three times the amount.
The official Department of Defense FY 2022 Reimbursable Rates were around $52,000 per hour for the Raptor and $14,000 per hour for the F-35. What is more interesting is not the absolute number, but the relative difference. The Raptor’s reimbursable rate is 3.7x that of the Lightning II. In FY 2024, the reimbursable rates were $54,500 and $17,500 per hour, respectively.
When calculating full operating and sustainment per flight hour, the costs rise significantly. The estimated cost per flight hour for the F-35 is around $33,000 to $42,000 per hour. Meanwhile, the cost range per flight hour for the F-22 is generally cited at between $60,000 and $85,000. The GAO government watchdog reported the F-22 had a total cost per flight hour of $85,325 in 2022. The same report gave the total cost per flight hour for the F-35 (all variants) at $41,986.
