The United States Air Force already has a hunting F-35A Lightning II like no other of your fleet. This unit, nicknamed ‘Frankenjet’ in reference to the creation of Mary W. Shelleywas rebuilt by the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) From 2 F-35a Lightning II previously sinister and that were no longer operational.
The two injured F-35a involved in reconstruction respond to denominations AF-211 and AF-27. The AF-27 suffered A fire in the engine In 2014, while AF-211 had A fault on the landing gear front in 2020.
The ‘Frankenjet’, assigned to the 4th fighter generation squad, hunting wing 388, He returned to the operational service on March 26, 2025 In the Hill Air Base, the Air Force reported. Before re -entering the service, the plane completed its final maintenance at the facilities of Lockheed Martin In Fort Worth, Texas.
A more advanced Frankenstein of the US Air Force.
F-35A Lightning II is a poaching hunting fifth generationthe most advanced active of the US Air Force. UU. It was developed by Lockheed Martin for aerial attack and superiority missions and went into service in 2015.
Combine advanced stealth capabilities, latest generation sensors, integrated plane and a high capacity for collection and fusion of information in real time, which allows it Operate as a central node in multidominium combat environments. Its strategic importance lies in its ability to penetrate sophisticated aerial defenses, execute precision attacks and act as a multiplier By improving the effectiveness of other allied platforms, which has made it a key pillar of American combat aviation.
63 million dollars saved
The Frankenjet project began at the end of 2022, with the then unpublished objective of transplant the morro of AF-27 to the fuselage of the AF-211. Instead of discarding both devices as a total sinister, the JPO team decided reuse useful parts to return at least one operating unit to the fleet.
‘The scope and complexity of this project were an exemplary demonstration of how to overcome barriers and reach a new level of repair capacity in an advanced tactical hunt‘He said Tomas BarberEngineer of the Team of Repairs for Serious Accidents of the F-35 JPO, according to Air Force Times.
The repair lasted two years and five monthswith a cost of 11.7 million dollars2.8 million below the planned budget. Thus, instead of acquiring a new F -35a -Valorado in almost 80 million dollars-, the operation supposed A saving of 63 million For the Department of Defense.
On January 24, 2025, the ‘Frankenjet’ made its first flight from the Hill Air Base to the Lockheed Martin facilities in Fort Worth. ‘A proof of the success of the process is that the plane flew to the limit of its capacity and behaved as just out of the production line’he pointed out Jeffrey Jensenresponsible for the F-35A variant.
This project that He has fused two combat fighters for the first time opens a new way of capacities for US armed forces, demonstrating that It is possible to restore complex platforms -As fighters, artillery, ships or armored vehicles- instead of discarding themthus reducing operational costs. Something what Ukraine already has experience.