The Department also told us it intends to buy more F-35 aircraft.16 It had previously told us that the 48 F-35 aircraft it is currently purchasing would not be enough to sustain Carrier Strike operations throughout the life of its two aircraft carriers.17 We heard that it now intends to buy an additional 26 aircraft, but these will not start being delivered until the end of the decade. The total of 74 F-35s that the Department is purchasing is considerably less than the 138 it originally planned.18