The United States Air Force is quietly transforming its F-35A fleet from a stealthy scout into a far more lethal strike platform, committing hundreds of millions of dollars to new long-range weapons. At the center of that shift is a roughly $240 million investment in the Norwegian-built Joint Strike Missile, a precision cruise weapon designed to let pilots hit defended targets from well outside hostile air defenses. I see this as less a one-off purchase and more a signal of how the service expects to fight in the most contested airspaces of the next decade.
By pairing the F-35’s sensors and stealth with a missile purpose-built for high-threat environments, the Air Force is betting that survivability and standoff firepower have to grow together. The new contract expands production of a weapon that can be carried internally on the jet, preserving its low observable profile while dramatically extending its reach. For a force that already fields the largest fleet of fifth-generation aircraft on the planet, this is a deliberate move to deepen, not just widen, its advantage.
The $240 million bet on longer-range firepower
The core of the upgrade is financial as much as technical: The US Air Force has committed roughly $240 million to expand its stock of Joint Strike Missiles for the F-35A, a clear signal that this is no boutique capability. In one major step, the service placed a Lot 2 production order valued at $240 m, a contract that locks in a second wave of missiles and embeds the weapon more firmly into its long-term strike planning. That level of spending, on top of earlier buys, reflects a belief that the F-35’s combat credibility in a high-end fight depends on pairing stealth with deep standoff reach.
Reporting on the Lot 2 deal notes that The US Air Force (USAF) awarded Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace the $240 million contract for continued Joint Strike Missile production, with the Lot structure indicating a multi-year procurement path rather than a one-off purchase. In parallel, other coverage describes how The United States Air Force just paid out an over $240 package to bolster its F-35 arsenal, framing the move as a deliberate firepower upgrade rather than routine resupply. When I look at those figures together, I see a service that is not dabbling in a new weapon, but scaling it as a core part of its strike portfolio.
Why the F-35 needs a missile like this
The F-35 was built to slip into defended airspace, but recent combat zones have shown that stealth alone is not a force field, especially when aircraft must operate near modern surface-to-air missiles. In one reported incident, an F-35 had to maneuver aggressively to evade a Houthi surface-to-air missile, a reminder that even fifth-generation jets can be challenged when they are forced closer to hostile launchers. The same reporting highlights Australian 35 Tests that explored an Expeditionary Base Concept Flight and the Air Force’s Stand In Attack Weapon, underscoring how planners are experimenting with both basing and munitions to keep pilots alive while still hitting hard.
That context helps explain why a long-range, air-launched cruise missile is so attractive. The Joint Strike Missile is described as a long-range, air-launched cruise weapon designed for aircraft operating in high-threat environments, giving pilots the option to strike from well outside the engagement envelope of many enemy systems. By arming the F-35 with a missile that can be fired from standoff distances while the jet remains in a low observable configuration, the Air Force is trying to reduce the number of times its most advanced fighters have to repeat the kind of close brush with enemy missiles that has already occurred in real-world operations.
Inside the Joint Strike Missile’s design
At the heart of the upgrade is the Joint Strike Missile itself, a weapon engineered from the outset to complement stealth aircraft rather than simply hang off their wings. The missile is described as a long-range, air-launched cruise system that can be carried by fighters operating in high-threat environments, with a flight profile and guidance package tailored to slip through layered defenses. Its compact form factor and shaping are intended to allow internal carriage on the F-35A, preserving the jet’s radar signature while still delivering a substantial warhead against ships or land targets.
The missile’s lineage matters as well. It is -Derived from the Naval Strike Missile, a sea-skimming weapon already in service with several navies, and has been adapted into the Joint Strike Missile configuration to fit inside the F-35’s weapons bays while extending its reach. Reporting on the program notes that production is set to ramp up next year, alongside allied buys, which suggests a maturing design rather than an experimental prototype. When I look at that evolution, I see a weapon that has moved from coastal defense to become a key enabler for stealth aircraft operating far from friendly bases.
How the contract locks in industrial capacity
Beyond the tactical benefits, the new contract is about securing industrial capacity at a time when advanced munitions are in high demand worldwide. Work under the agreement will be performed in Kongsberg, Norway, and is expected to continue through November 30, 2028, a timeline that effectively guarantees several years of steady production. That long runway gives both the Air Force and its Norwegian partners room to refine manufacturing, manage supply chains, and potentially scale output if demand from the United States or allies increases.
The US Government has announced that KONGSBERG will deliver Joint Strike Missiles (JSM) to the Air Force under a formal award, according to an official statement that ties the program directly to Washington’s broader modernization plans. The same announcement identifies Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace in Kongsberg, Norway as the industrial backbone for the effort, reinforcing that this is not just a weapons buy but a transatlantic production partnership. From my perspective, locking in that capacity through 2028 is as much about strategic resilience as it is about any single missile, ensuring that the F-35 community is not caught short of precision weapons in a crisis.
What this means for the “largest stealth Air Force”
The United States already operates what has been described as the Largest Stealth Air Force on Planet Earth Deepens, a fleet built around hundreds of F-35As that form the backbone of its tactical aviation. Adding a new generation of standoff missiles to that force does not simply increase the number of targets it can hit, it changes the geometry of how those aircraft can be used. With Joint Strike Missiles on board, F-35s can remain farther from dense air defenses, use their sensors to find and classify threats, then hand off the actual strike to a weapon designed to thread its way through the danger zone.
Coverage of the missile buy frames it as a Firepower upgrade worth $240 M, emphasizing that the investment is meant to deepen the punch of the existing fleet rather than expand aircraft numbers. For a service that already fields more fifth-generation jets than any other, the marginal gain from one more squadron is arguably smaller than the gain from giving each jet a more lethal and survivable weapons load. I read this as a shift from counting tails on the ramp to counting the number of defended targets that can be credibly held at risk on day one of a conflict.
Integration with the F-35A and allied fleets
Integrating a new missile into a complex aircraft like the F-35A is not as simple as bolting it on, it requires software updates, flight testing, and tactics development that ripple across the entire enterprise. The Air Force’s Lot 2 order for Kongsberg Joint Strike Missiles is explicitly tied to its order fleet of F-35As, indicating that the weapon is being woven into the standard configuration of the jet rather than reserved for niche units. That kind of integration typically involves mission data file updates, pilot training, and adjustments to maintenance and storage infrastructure so the missile can be deployed at scale.
There is also a broader coalition dimension. Reporting on the Joint Strike Missile program notes that allied buys are expected to grow alongside the US order, with production set to ramp up next year as more F-35 operators sign on. As more air forces adopt the same missile, interoperability improves, from shared tactics to common logistics pipelines. In my view, that makes the weapon more than a national capability, it turns it into a shared tool for a network of F-35 users who may need to operate together in contested regions from Europe to the Pacific.
How this reshapes strike options in high-threat environments
For planners, the most important effect of the new missile is the way it reshapes strike options against heavily defended targets. Instead of sending F-35s deep into the heart of an integrated air defense system to drop shorter-range munitions, commanders can now consider launch points that sit outside the densest threat rings. The Joint Strike Missile’s long-range profile, combined with its design for aircraft operating in high-threat environments, allows the jet to exploit its stealth for sensing and targeting while relying on the missile to survive the last, most dangerous leg of the journey.
That shift has knock-on effects for everything from tanker planning to base posture. If F-35s can launch from more distant airfields and still hold critical targets at risk, the Air Force gains flexibility in where it stations aircraft and how it routes them into theater. Earlier experimentation with the Tests Expeditionary Base Concept Flight for Australian F-35 operations hints at a future where jets disperse to austere locations, then use long-range weapons like the Joint Strike Missile to project power without massing in a few vulnerable hubs. From my perspective, the $240 investment in missiles is inseparable from these evolving concepts of operations.
The strategic signal behind the upgrade
There is also a signaling dimension to the Air Force’s decision to pour $240 Million into this particular capability. Adversaries watch not just how many aircraft the United States buys, but what weapons those aircraft carry and how quickly new munitions move from test ranges into operational squadrons. By accelerating Lot production of the Joint Strike Missile and tying it directly to the F-35A fleet, the service is telegraphing that it expects to face sophisticated air defenses and intends to retain the ability to strike through them.
At the same time, the involvement of The US Government in formally announcing KONGSBERG’s role, and the decision to base Work in Kongsberg, Norway, underline that this is part of a broader network of defense relationships. As I see it, the firepower upgrade is not just about giving American pilots a better weapon, it is about binding together an industrial and operational coalition around a shared approach to high-end air warfare. In an era when contested skies are becoming the norm rather than the exception, that combination of technology, money, and alliance politics may prove as decisive as the missile’s range or guidance system.
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