“During the third quarter, we delivered 46 aircraft and now expect between 175 and 190 deliveries in 2025. That's essentially one aircraft delivery every working day of the year,” said Jim Taiclet, Lockheed Martin’s chairman, president, and CEO.

The win comes after Lockheed Martin in July cleared its backlog of F-35s stored in long-term parking due to software problems, which caused a year-long pause in deliveries.

The company also boasted a 12 percent increase in aeronautics sales compared to last year thanks to more F-35 production and sustainment. 

“The recent lot 18 and 19 award re-emphasizes the growing demand for the F-35,” Taiclet said. “Moreover, we finalized the $15 billion air vehicle sustainment contract with the Joint Program Office. The four-year deal provides for aftermarket activities such as spare parts, provisioning maintenance, repair, and other support services through 2028.”

Demand for the fighter jet has also grown worldwide, adding to expectations to produce a global fleet of more than 3,500 F-35s. 

“International demand for the jet remains strong, with Belgium and Denmark both announcing intentions to expand their fleets. Belgium [is] seeking to procure an additional 11 aircraft, and Denmark [is] expressing interest in adding 16 aircraft to their existing program of record. The steady demand from our international allies for the F-35 demonstrates the unmatched capability of the aircraft and gives us confidence in sustained, long term production,” said Evan Scott, Lockheed Martin’s chief financial officer. 

Germany has also indicated it wants to expand its F-35 fleet. 

“We ended the third quarter with a backlog of 265 jets, and that's before adding the extra 151 that came in the first week of Q4. So we have seen strong support domestically and internationally,” Scott said. “The strong advocacy we've seen from lawmakers and the focus on air superiority from the administration, that gives us confidence in maintaining the 156 [deliveries] a year rate.”

Sustainment will likely drive future program growth, especially as F-35s are updated with new technologies, such as with the Block 4 upgrades. 

Taiclet said that while the tech integrations were complex and challenging, he is optimistic due to “the highest level of collaboration, cooperation” between the government, Lockheed, and F-35 suppliers, including RTX, BAE Systems, and Northrop Grumman. 

“We have the best collaboration we've ever had and openness with the government, not only to work with us in a teamwork fashion across all of those companies and the U.S. government in the Joint Program Office, but also to remove barriers and delays on the government side, which heretofore hadn't been addressed that that aggressively, I'll say,” Taiclet said.“And so we're in a positive conversation with all the parties that are involved in this Block 4 modernization program, which is really, really important to keep everything on time, to keep the production line going. So I'm confident that we will have a successful block four rollout.”

A recent Government Accountability Office report noted that Block 4 delays are about five years behind the original schedule, pushing the timeline to 2031 and increasing costs by more than $6 billion.

“According to program officials, the new Block 4 major subprogram will have fewer capabilities, will experience schedule delays, and will have unknown costs until the program office finishes developing its cost estimate,” GAO said.

The X-BAT, revealed at a private event in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday evening, is Shield AI’s first unmanned fighter jet offering. The San Diego-based AI developer, coming off wins for testing and fielding its autonomous software on military aircraft, sees the fighter drone’s versatility to function as a robot wingman or as a standalone platform as one of its biggest strengths.

“X-BAT’s ability to autonomously operate standalone or collaboratively allows it to project power when other assets aren’t around and simplifies kill chains,” Armor Harris, senior vice president of aircraft at Shield AI, said in a press release. 

Shield AI plans to first test the aircraft’s vertical-takeoff-and-landing, capabilities by the fall of 2026, with a full flight test set for 2028, said Lily Hinz, a Shield AI spokesperson. The X-BAT marks the latest unmanned VTOL offering as the U.S. military and other nations continue to field drones and pivot away from runway-reliant aircraft. 

Hinz said there’s no specific customer in mind for the unmanned aircraft, but the news release says the aircraft “integrates with current and future Air Force and Navy concepts” and also mentions that “three X–BATs fit in the deck space of one legacy fighter or helicopter.”

Animated video of the X-BAT concept in action shows the group five sized-drone taking off vertically from a launchpad mounted on a trailer and lists cargo ships, aircraft carriers, and cleared landing zones as potential takeoff locations. Shield AI said in one of its videos that the aircraft’s 2,000 nautical mile range can be used for “island-hopping” missions.

The X-BAT has been designed for strike, counter air, and electronic warfare as well as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. It’s being built to carry both air-to-air and air-to-surface munitions, videos provided by Shield AI to media outlets explained.

Shield AI has already notched several milestones and collaborations with the U.S. military. The AI company has deployed and tested its V-BAT VTOL recon drones alongside Marines, and Ukrainian special operators have successfully used them to identify and later destroy Russian surface-to-air missile sites amid electronic warfare jamming attacks.

Last year, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall flew in an X-62A VISTA, a modified test aircraft, piloted by Shield AI’s software in a simulated dogfight with a manned F-16 fighter. The company, in collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Air Combat Evolution Team, was a finalist for the 2023 Robert J. Collier Trophy by the National Aeronautics Association for those efforts.

The AI company’s VTOL combat aircraft announcement follows announcements from Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky this month revealing their own unmanned VTOL aircraft platforms.

The Navy and Air Force are both fielding Collaborative Combat Aircraft as drone wingmen. General Atomics announced Friday it was selected by the sea service to produce conceptual designs for its CCA efforts. The defense contractor is also competing for the Air Force’s CCA contract alongside Anduril. 

Shield AI was reportedly selected to supply Anduril’s CCA offering for the Air Force with its autonomous capabilities. As Anduril and General Atomics compete for the Air Force’s production contract in 2026, service officials expect to award the next round, or increment, of CCA contracts within months.

“We are in the midst of those discussions. They've been held up a bit because of the government shutdown and the availability of resources to continue those discussions during this time,” Warden said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call. “We expect those to resume.”

Air Force spokespeople did not immediately return a request for comment. 

In April, Northrop Grumman announced it took a nearly $500 million hit to increase production rates. The defense contractor has been working with the service after $4.5 billion aimed at increasing manufacturing for the B-21 bomber was approved this summer following the passage of the reconciliation bill.

Warden said “in the coming months” the company expects to have more clarity on what accelerating production would look like. The Air Force has announced plans to buy 100 B-21 bombers, although some officials have made a pitch to field nearly 150 aircraft.

The CEO said during the earnings call that the company has been working diligently on the B-21 program and expects awards tied to the low-rate initial production on the next bomber lots in the final quarter of 2025.

“With the progress we've made, we remain on track to receive the LRIP lot three and lot five advanced procurement awards later this year,” Warden said. “We continue discussions with the Air Force on the framework for an agreement to accelerate the B-21 production rate.”

Flight testing for the bomber began in November of 2023. Last month, a second B-21 aircraft test aircraft took flight. Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota is set to receive the first aircraft.

Warden said Northrop Grumman continues “to make good progress” on the Air Force’s behind-schedule, over-budget Sentinel ICBM. Just the day before, the company announced that the program had completed a critical design review for the Sentinel digital command and control infrastructure—marking a key milestone to build, test, and qualify the system.

Last year, the Pentagon announced a substantial restructuring of the program after costs skyrocketed to $141 billion—81 percent above initial estimates. As a result, work was temporarily paused on Sentinel. The defense company announced in July it had resumed work on the launch facilities after the Air Force admitted it couldn’t reuse the existing Minuteman III launch silos and would have to dig hundreds of new holes instead.

Tuesday marked 21 days into the government shutdown with no immediate resolution in sight between President Donald Trump’s administration and congressional Democrats. Amid the partisan gridlock, Warden said there’s still a bipartisan interest in national-security spending, and she seemed confident Northrop will emerge from the shutdown unscathed.

“It is unclear how long it might persist, but we are hopeful it will be resolved in the near term,” she said. “Assuming it is, we do not anticipate any significant impact on our financial results. In the meantime, we remain focused on executing our programs and delivering on our commitment.”