U.S. Military Accepts Six Radarless F-35Bs for Marine Corps

The U.S. military has accepted six F-35B Joint Strike Fighters for the Marine Corps without radars installed. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Masiello, head of the F-35 Joint Program Office, disclosed the deliveries during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing this week.

Masiello confirmed the aircraft lack AN/APG-85 radars because none are yet available. He said he would not count the jets as fully mission capable. Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and retired naval aviator, asked whether the Marine Corps had accepted airplanes with no radar; Masiello replied, “We have accepted six aircraft for the Marine Corps that do not have a radar installed.

The AN/APG-85 is the next-generation active electronically scanned array radar intended for all F-35 variants under the Block 4 modernization program. The first production lot is scheduled for delivery in 2028, nine months earlier than previously planned but still years behind the original schedule. Official budget documents released earlier this year set the unit cost at nearly $9 million.

The mounting hardware for the new radar is not compatible with the current AN/APG-81, so retrofits are not an option. The Marine Corps is the only U.S. operator of the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing F-35B.

No confirmation has been given that the Air Force or Navy has accepted radarless aircraft. Foreign customers are not expected to receive AN/APG-85-equipped jets in the near term. The disclosures came during an exchange on F-35 readiness.

Two weeks earlier, the Government Accountability Office reported that the average full-mission-capable rate across all F-35 variants fell from 38 percent in fiscal 2020 to 25 percent in fiscal 2025. Masiello attributed spare-parts shortages to insufficient stockpiling despite rising demand from a growing fleet.