Lockheed Martin’s UK Boss Defends F-35 From Elon Musk’s Criticism

A month ago, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk made very clear in a post on X that he wasn’t a supporter of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Musk shared a video of a Chinese drone formation and offered his opinion, “Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35.”

That sparked a backlash from the aviation community, which defended the fifth-generation stealth fighter and argued that while drones are likely part of the future of military aviation, it is unlikely they could replace the role of the jet fighter in modern warfare.

Lockheed Martin UK Responds

Earlier this week, Paul Livingston, chief executive of Lockheed Martin’s UK division (the F-35’s manufacturer), also defended the F-35 in an interview with The Telegraph newspaper.

He told the publication of record, “I think Elon is an amazing brain and he’s done some incredible things, particularly with SpaceX. Who doesn’t admire that stuff? But there’s an understanding of the threat that he won’t have, because he doesn’t have the clearances to understand that. On this subject, he’s wrong.”

Thus, as Livingston suggested, Musk’s opinion of the fighter may be based largely on open-source and public information. That fact isn’t likely to change.

Even as the billionaire behind SpaceX has become a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, Musk is unlikely to receive a higher security clearance due to his admission of past drug use. Musk is reported to hold a “top-secret” clearance, which has taken years to obtain.

Are Other “Idiots” Building Manned Fighters?

Livingston further defended the F-35—widely seen as the most successful fifth-generation fighter built to date, with more than 1,000 now in service around the world—and pointed out that Beijing is building its own stealth fighter.

This could beg the question of whether there are “idiots” in Beijing and Moscow pushing for manned fighters. If the United States were on the wrong path, perhaps Beijing wouldn’t have pulled out all the stops at last month’s fifteenth China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, where it unveiled the twin-seat variant of its Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighter, known as the J-20S.

The event also saw the debut of the Shenyang J-35A, a carrier-based variant of the FC-31, further showcasing China’s growing fifth-generation aircraft capabilities.

“The Chinese are still building their J20 jets,” Livingston noted. “Maybe Elon thinks they’re idiots as well because those are manned fighters?”

Four F-35s Can Do A Squadron’s Worth of Work

The Lockheed Martin executive also highlighted the capabilities of the Lightning II, describing the jets as “flying computers” while touting their multirole capabilities.

“Before the F-35, if I was going to fly a mission into a peer nation’s territory to strike against a well-protected target, I would need a minimum of 16 aircraft,” Livingston told The Telegraph. “You would have jamming aircraft—which, by the way, says, ‘Hello, we’re coming’—then you’d send in suppression of enemy air defence aircraft, because you’d have to kill the radars off, then you’d send fast strike aircraft in.”

The F-35, Livingston said, can get the same job done much more effectively and efficiently.

“I can now do that same mission with four F-35s and no support. And they don’t need protection afterwards, because they can fight their way out,” he added.

Drones Are The Future

Musk has also taken the view that the F-35 is an “expensive and complex jack of all trades, master of none,” while arguing, “Crewed fighter jets are an inefficient way to extend the range of missiles or drop bombs,” adding, “A reusable drone can do so without all the overhead of a human pilot.”

Livingston doesn’t dispute that drones could play a significant role in air warfare, but he doubts whether the human element can ever be fully removed.

“Drones are going to be part of the future and they will be able to provide some level of air dominance, because there’s no doubt that once you take a human out of an aircraft the cost for your effects comes down,” the UK executive said in the interview. “But you’ve got to look at where we are today. And first of all, a drone has got to be able to see a threat, right?”

The Pentagon Sticking With The F-35

Even as Musk has publicly criticized the F-35, it would appear the U.S. Department of Defense is sticking with the manned fifth-generation fighter. Last Friday, Lockheed Martin was awarded a nearly $12 billion contract to produce an additional 145 Lightning IIs for the U.S. military and its international allies.

“This modification adds scope for the production and delivery of 145 F-35 full rate production (FRP) Lot 18 aircraft (48 F-35A aircraft for the Air Force; 16 F-35B aircraft and five F-35C aircraft for the Marine Corps; 14 F-35C aircraft for the Navy; 15 F-35A aircraft and one F-35B aircraft for F-35 non-U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) program partners; and 39 F-35A aircraft and seven F-35B aircraft for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers),” the Pentagon stated in the contract announcement.

Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites, with over 3,200 published pieces and over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

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