• Elon Musk sharply criticized the F-35 stealth jet and its builder, Lockheed Martin.
• Musk could target the expensive program as part of his efforts to cut federal spending under Trump.
• Congress has historically valued the stealth fighter flown by three military branches despite its problems.

Just weeks after President-elect Donald Trump tasked Elon Musk with cutting government spending, the SpaceX CEO criticized the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program: the F-35.

Musk called the jet's design "shit" and derided the "idiots" making the fifth-generation stealth fighter, which is widely considered a cornerstone of US airpower. His comments suggest he could be eyeing the $2 trillion F-35 program, and possibly other fighter jets, for potential spending cuts.

To do so would be an uphill battle. He would likely need to first convince Trump, who has for years repeatedly celebrated the F-35 for its high-end stealth capabilities. Then he would need to gain support within the Pentagon and Congress, which controls its funding.

DOGE could target defense spending and the extremely expensive F-35

Trump has tapped Musk to head the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, charged with targeting government waste. Defense spending is a big potential target for the initiative.

It is the largest discretionary spending category in the federal budget, with the Pentagon's fiscal year 2024 budget of $824.3 billion. And the Department of Defense recently failed its seventh audit in a row.

The F-35 has had many problems. It suffered setbacks in development, and it continues to face cost overruns and readiness issues, with availability declining even as the program costs rise. Earlier this year, a government watchdog report found that the program will cost over $2 trillion over its lifetime.

In posts on X this week, Musk sharply criticized both the stealth fighter jet and, indirectly, its manufacturer: US defense giant Lockheed Martin. He said drones can now replicate the effect of crewed aircraft on the battlefield.

He also wrote that the F-35 fighter's design "was broken at the requirements level because it was required to be too many things to too many people. This made it an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes."

Some defense analysts say the combat-proven aircraft is still a vital capability in America's arsenal — one that can't just be replaced by drones.

The multirole fighter jet is flown by the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, with three different versions for operating off traditional runways, big-deck amphibious assault ships, and aircraft carriers. It was designed to execute air combat, ground attack, and other missions. The plane first took flight nearly 20 years ago and is expected to serve until 2088.

In response to Musk's comments, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson said the F-35 is "the most advanced, survivable, and connected fighter aircraft in the world, a vital deterrent and the cornerstone of joint all-domain operations." They added that Lockheed looks forward "to a strong working relationship with President Trump, his team, and also with the new Congress to strengthen our national defense."

A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on Musk's criticisms of the F-35 when asked about them at a Tuesday media briefing.

Any proposed cuts to the F-35 program could face opposition in Congress from lawmakers who have historically supported it for the spending it brings to many districts in the form of factory jobs. In fact, the House's defense spending bill for the 2025 fiscal year called for more F-35s than what the Pentagon initially requested.

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for information on whether it plans to reduce or end the F-35 program.

How Musk could save money on the F-35 program

Michael Bohnert, a licensed engineer at the RAND Corporation, told BI the F-35 fighter is "cost-competitive" with global alternatives.

Bohnert said taking away the pilot wouldn't really change costs, and it would require multiple drones to begin to recreate the capabilities of an F-35. The ultimate costs of those platforms could end up being more expensive and, ultimately, still less capable.

A better way to save money, he said, would be to improve the cost efficiency of munitions and automate maintenance.

"Augmenting F-35s with unmanned systems would be valuable, but unmanned systems are no replacement," he said. Canceling the fighter altogether "would be one of the biggest gifts imaginable for America's enemies," he said.

Stacy Pettyjohn, director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security, told BI that the US can't replace crewed aircraft with drones in the near term anyway. The technology isn't advanced enough yet.

She said that the Pentagon has not yet fielded fully lethal autonomous weapons "that are sophisticated and can make sense of their environments, decide what to do, and act fully on their own."

"Almost all of the drones that exist today are remotely piloted or at most semi-autonomous," she said. "Developing the autonomy responsibly and then deciding that we have trust in it to send it on extremely consequential missions that is the long pole in the tent."

Elon Musk is calling F-35 makers "idiots" for building manned jets while drone technology soars. Here's what experts say on the subject.

• Elon Musk criticized the F-35 program on Sunday.
• Musk's comments come as he prepares to advise Trump on government efficiency in 2025.
• The GAO expects the F-35 program to cost about $2 trillion over its entire lifespan.

Elon Musk, who's set to start advising President-elect Donald Trump on government efficiency in 2025, criticized the Pentagon's F-35 program in two social media posts on Sunday.

The billionaire reposted a video montage of coordinated drone swarms on X, writing: "Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35."

He added a "trash can" emoji to his post.

When another X user defended the F-35's capabilities, Musk responded that the prized jet is a "shit design."

In another post, Musk said: "Crewed fighter jets are an inefficient way to extend the range of missiles or drop bombs. A reusable drone can do so without all the overhead of a human pilot."

"'Stealth' means nothing", he added, saying that it's "laughably easy" to shoot down fighter jets.

Musk has made similar arguments several times over the years.

Mauro Gilli, a senior researcher in military technology at the Center for Security Studies of the Swiss university ETH Zurich, told BI that Musk was echoing valid criticisms of the F-35 program.

But, he said, there were many problems with Musk's line of thinking.

Gilli acknowledged that the F-35 program has had well-documented cost and time overruns. But those problems are not primarily down to them being crewed aircraft, he told BI.

"The primary source of costs and problems was the electronics and, in particular, the software," he said.

And that would only get more expensive with a drone equivalent, he added.

"A drone operating within enemy airspace will not be remotely controlled," Gilli said. "It will need to have a very high level of autonomy."

This requires even more costly and complex electronics and software than even a piloted aircraft, he suggested.

According to Gilli, Musk's suggestion is to rely on something that has "so far been the primary source of cost and time delays. And so there is no reason to believe that these drones would be any cheaper."

Musk's emphasis on a "reusable" drone also means it would need all the same stealth capabilities as an F-35 in penetrating enemy airspace and evading air defenses, Gilli said, making his comments about stealth a moot point.

A target for DOGE?

It's unclear if Musk intends to use his new position to impact any plans or costs for the F-35, the Pentagon's most expensive fighter program to date.

But he mentioned Defense Department spending in a column in The Wall Street Journal that criticized federal government budgets.

"The Pentagon recently failed its seventh consecutive audit, suggesting that the agency's leadership has little idea how its annual budget of more than $800 billion is spent," Musk wrote in the column with Vivek Ramaswamy, who is to lead Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency with him.

Musk and Ramaswamy wrote that the intention of their department is to eliminate the "sheer magnitude of waste, fraud, and abuse that nearly all taxpayers wish to end."

As for the F-35, costs for the Lockheed Martin-developed stealth jet have hit about $485 billion, after a 10% bump this year due to what the Pentagon said was a need to improve its engine cooling.

Around 1,000 of the planes have been delivered to the US military and its allies, out of a total of over 3,000 aircraft planned for production over the F-35 program's lifetime.

The jet's operational lifespan is estimated to last until 2088, and the Government Accountability Office thus expects the F-35 program to cost over $2 trillion to produce and sustain.

Musk did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, but he's said before that the US should consider remote-piloted alternatives to manned jets, both to keep up with the rise in drone warfare and also to help Air Force procurement stay competitive.

In response to Musk's tweets, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson told BI that the F-35 is "the most advanced, survivable and connected fighter aircraft in the world, a vital deterrent and the cornerstone of joint all-domain operations."

"As we did in his first term, we look forward to a strong working relationship with President Trump, his team, and also with the new Congress to strengthen our national defense," they added.

Meanwhile, a Pentagon spokesperson told BI: "We have combat capable aircraft in operation today and they perform exceptionally well against the threat for which they were designed."

The spokesperson added: "Pilots continually emphasize that this is the fighter they want to take to war if called upon."