Pentagon’s RADARLESS Jets — Wait, What?

America’s most advanced fighter jet is now being delivered to the Marines with gym weights where the radar should be — and both sides of the political aisle see it as one more sign that the system serves defense contractors and bureaucrats first, and the taxpayer and warfighter second.

Story Snapshot

The U.S. Marine Corps has accepted six new F-35B jets with no radar, only ballast in the nose.
Officials say the jets will be used for basic flight training and later retrofitted when the new AN/APG-85 radar is ready.
Congressional testimony confirms these aircraft are “not fully mission capable,” raising readiness and waste concerns.
The decision reflects a broader “buy now, fix later” pattern in defense spending that frustrates both conservatives and liberals.

What Exactly Did The Marines Accept?

The U.S. Marine Corps has taken delivery of six F-35B Lightning II fighters that rolled off the line without their main combat radar installed. Instead of the new AN/APG-85 radar, the nose of each jet holds ballast weights so the aircraft’s balance and flight safety remain within normal limits. Marine Corps Lieutenant General Gregory Masiello, who leads the F-35 Joint Program Office, confirmed to the Senate that “six aircraft for the Marine Corps” arrived with “no radar installed.” The jets come from production Lot 17, built earlier this year and tested starting in February.

Without a radar, these F-35s can fly but cannot perform their core combat role. The Joint Program Office and Marine leaders say the jets will be used only for basic flight training and certain procedures until the missing radars are installed. In that hearing, Masiello admitted he would not count them as “fully mission capable,” echoing concerns from Senator Mark Kelly and others who question how useful a front-line fighter is when it cannot see and track threats on its own.

Why Are Brand-New Fighters Missing Their “Eyes”?

The missing hardware is the AN/APG-85, a new active electronically scanned array radar meant to power the F-35’s next big upgrade package known as Block 4. Northrop Grumman is developing the radar, but its schedule slipped, and serial deliveries are now expected no earlier than 2028. Beginning with Lot 17, F-35 airframes were redesigned with a special bulkhead and mounts sized only for the new radar. The older AN/APG-81 radar cannot be bolted in as a stopgap, leaving the Pentagon with a stark choice: slow production or ship jets without their primary sensor.

Marine and Pentagon officials frame this as a calculated tradeoff. They argue it is better to keep building Block 4–ready aircraft now than to keep turning out older Block 3 jets that would later need years of expensive retrofits. In their words, continuing production in this way “saves multiple years of retrofit hardware installation” and protects the huge industrial base that supports the F-35 line. Critics counter that this logic mainly protects contractors’ revenue and factory jobs, while leaving troops with aircraft that cannot be sent into combat until more money and time are spent down the road.

What Can A Radarless F-35 Actually Do?

The radar is central to the F-35’s mission systems. It helps the pilot find, track, and target enemy aircraft, missiles, and ground threats. Without it, the jet loses much of its air-to-air, air-to-ground, and electronic warfare power. Officials say the six Marine jets can still support basic pilot training, takeoffs, landings, and some formation work. They can also practice using other sensors and the aircraft’s advanced data links, which let them share information with more fully equipped aircraft or surveillance planes.

Supporters of the decision note that a portion of the F-35 fleet must be set aside for training anyway, so assigning this limited role to the radarless Block 4 jets for a few years can make sense. Some analysts even point out that, in theory, a radarless F-35 could join a mission by relying on targeting data from nearby jets or airborne warning and control aircraft. Yet most agree this is far from ideal. The lack of a self-contained radar makes the pilot more dependent on others and less able to react quickly if those external data sources fail or are jammed.

How Does This Fit The Bigger Pattern Of Pentagon Spending?

This episode sits inside a long-running trend in U.S. defense buying: keep production lines moving even when key parts are late, then fix the gaps later at extra cost. Pentagon documents themselves describe the F-35 Block 4 plan as a “highly concurrent development and production program,” meaning they chose to develop major upgrades while still churning out aircraft instead of pausing until everything was ready. This high-concurrency model has already driven big cost increases and delays across the F-35 program.

For many Americans, the radarless F-35s feel like a symbol of how the federal government works today. Conservatives see another example of huge spending that does not deliver full capability, while the military still struggles to recruit and maintain basic readiness. Liberals see a system that seems to favor big contractors like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman over investments in people and domestic needs. Both sides look at a fighter jet worth tens of millions of dollars that cannot fight and ask the same question: who is this really for?

Defense officials insist accepting these incomplete jets is “the least bad option,” arguing that stopping production would harm quality, hollow out the workforce, and drive costs even higher. But outside watchdogs point to repeated missed timelines for the radar and warn that more delays are likely. As more Air Force and Navy F-35s are expected to arrive without radars later this year if the schedule does not improve, the controversy will grow. The story of these six Marine jets is no longer just about one sensor; it is about whether a government that spends so much on “top-tier” hardware can still be trusted to deliver the basic tools its troops need — and whether ordinary citizens have any real say in how that money is used.