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Lockheed is pivoting to upgrading F-22s and F-35s with sixth-generation fighter technology after losing the F-47 contract to Boeing.
Lockheed Martin coined the term “fifth-generation fighter” in 2004 to draw the market’s attention to how the F-22 and F-35 defined a class of aircraft that packaged supersonic speed with a stealthy airframe and a data fusion-equipped cockpit.
Not all the defining features of a sixth-generation fighter—a term the U.S. Air Force has used to describe the newly launched Boeing F-47—are clear, but they do include a supersonic design stealthy enough to penetrate the most heavily defended airspace yet flexible enough for the government to adapt quickly without direct OEM involvement.
Within that gap is the new growth strategy for Lockheed’s aeronautics division, now shut out from the Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program and the Navy’s still-undecided F/A-XX fighter. The company intends to define and implement a new “fifth-generation-plus” standard for the F-22 and F-35.
- CEO cites radar, Infrared search and track
- Company targets 50% cost reduction compared with F-47
“I feel that we can have 80% of the capability, potentially at 50% of the cost per unit aircraft, by taking the F-35 chassis and applying numerous advanced technologies—some of which are already in process in Block 4 on F-35—but [also] others that we can apply,” Lockheed CEO James Taiclet told market analysts on the company’s quarterly earnings call on April 22.
Presumably, Lockheed’s engineers cannot redesign its fifth-generation fighters to fly without vertical stabilizers, a key feature of several of the company’s artistic renderings for the NGAD programs. Nor is it clear how the same technologies destined for the F-47 can be integrated for half the price on the F-22 and F-35. The claim has Air Force leaders scratching their heads but still intrigued.
“I haven’t heard that from Lockheed,” Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel said in reaction to Taiclet’s comments at an event hosted by the Air and Space Forces Association on April 24. “I’m interested in talking to them and seeing what they have. That’s not something that we’ve looked at to a great degree, but I’m interested in taking a look.”
The building blocks of Lockheed’s “fifth-generation-plus” makeover of the F-22 and F-35 are already in development. Lockheed started working on studies in 2023 for a proposed Block 5 version of the F-35. Any novel features are to be supported by a Power and Thermal Management Upgrade, for which Honeywell and RTX’s Collins Aerospace are competing, as well as an Engine Core Upgrade that RTX-owned Pratt & Whitney is working on for the F135 engine.
Air Force leaders spoke of replacing the F-22 with the NGAD aircraft in May 2023 but shelved those retirement plans last year. Instead, the service created a $14 billion war chest to pay for a series of F-22 upgrades through fiscal 2029.
In the past, defense contractors have proposed equipping the F-35 and future fighters with a laser pod or internally installed turret. Northrop Grumman’s 12-year-old Threat Nullification Defensive Resource concept, for example, could be used to shoot down incoming air-to-air missiles if other countermeasures failed.
Lockheed’s strategy also leverages technologies developed through government and company funding over the past several years, Taiclet added. “One [technology area] is sensing the enemy at a distance greater than they can sense you,” he said. “So those kinds of categories are radar and passive infrared—and passive infrared is really important.
“The second part of the equation is, you want to have a tracking system and a weapon that can go farther and hit the enemy’s plane before they can ever even reach you with their weapon,” he added. “So there are techniques and capabilities we delivered with our NGAD bid that were developed for that and that we can now apply here to the F-35.”
Taiclet’s vision may be intended to ease future investor concerns about Lockheed’s fighter business. Besides losing the NGAD contract and withdrawing from the Navy’s F/A-XX competition, Lockheed has some analysts concerned that the Trump administration could reduce U.S. annual orders for the F-35.
Taiclet suggested that Lockheed expects no reduction in domestic demand for the F-35, even as he hinted that rising foreign demand would offset any cuts: “Our aeronautics team feels that if there’s some moderation, which we do not expect, by the way, in U.S. F-35 production, that we can make up for that in the international opportunities we have.”
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