An F-35B and F-35C aircraft fly in formation on March 14, 2013. (Courtesy of LOCKHEED MARTIN)

NEW YORK, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The cost of the U.S. 5th Generation fighter, F-35, garnered fresh media attention after President-elect Donald Trump criticized the program and cost was "out of control" Monday.

The Pentagon planned to spend 10.1 billion U.S. dollars for F-35s across the force: 43 F-35As for the Air Force, 16 F-35Bs for the Marine Corps and 4 F-35Cs for the Navy, according to the fiscal 2017 Department of Defense budget released in February this year.

The most recently contracted unit costs for Low Rate Initial Production lot 7 (not including the engine) are: F-35A 98 million dollars, F-35B 104 million dollars and F-35C 116 million dollars, says the F-35 fast-facts page of the manufacturer Lockheed Martin's website.

Two F-35A and two F-35B aircraft meet in the skies over Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), California, in June 2013. (Courtesy of LOCKHEED MARTIN)

An F-35A purchased in 2018 and delivered in 2020 will be 85 million dollars, which is the equivalent of 75 million dollars in today's dollars, the page added.

Early production F-35A fighters cost approximately 130 million dollars and originally the F-35A was supposed to cost just 49 million dollars each, adjusted for inflation, said Kyle Mizokami, a San Francisco-based writer on Defense and Security issues, in a recent article titled "The F-35 Is About to Get A Lot Cheaper. Sort Of."

"One area where the F-35 is still expensive? The cost per hour to fly, which over the lifetime of the plane can amount to more than the plane itself," Mizokami said, adding the F-35A still costs a whopping 42,169 dollars per hour to fly. Assuming a plane flies 120 hours a year, over 20 years that comes out to 100 million dollars.