Key Points – President Trump’s remarks in Qatar on May 15th about potential new “F-55” (a twin-engine F-35 “super upgrade”) and “F-22 Super” fighter programs inject fresh uncertainty into US air power plans.
-These concepts align with Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet’s recent suggestions to evolve existing F-35s and F-22s with NGAD-derived technology for “fifth-generation plus” capabilities at lower costs than new sixth-generation jets like Boeing’s F-47 or the Navy’s F/A-XX (which faces potential delays).
U.S. Air Force Maj. Paul ‘Loco’ Lopez, F-22 Demo Team commander/pilot, performs an aerial demonstration during the MCAS Beaufort air show, April 27, 2019. Maj. Lopez has over 1,500 hours flying both the F-15 and the F-22 and is in his second year as the commander of the F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team. (U.S. Air Force photo by 2nd Lt. Samuel Eckholm)
-However, the feasibility, funding, and strategic integration of these newly floated fighter ideas alongside already planned next-generation programs remain highly speculative.
F-55 and Super F-22 Fighter Announcement Was Unexpected
Speaking in Doha, the Qatari capital, on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump floated the idea of two new warplanes that he says the United States is considering: a previously unmentioned F-55 aircraft, as well as an upgraded F-22 Raptor that the President referred to as an F-22 Super.
Donald Trump made the announcement following a slew of deals between several Gulf countries and the United States, much of which focuses on defense spending as well as advanced artificial intelligence agreements with American companies to boost Gulf artificial intelligence competitiveness.
Though thin on details, the two jets Trump mentioned would be deep upgrades to the existing F-35 and F-22 stealth fighters. “We’re going to do an F-55 and – I think, if we get the right price, we have to get the right price – that’ll be two engines and a super upgrade on the F-35, and then we’re going to do the F-22,” President Trump said to reporters.
“I think the most beautiful fighter jet in the world is the F-22 but we’re going to do an F-22 Super and it’ll be a very modern version of the F-22 fighter jet,” he said. “We’re going to be going with it pretty quickly,” he added.
Interim Measures?
A brouhaha is brewing between planners in the U.S. Navy and Congress versus the current presidential administration over the future of the F/A-XX, a next-generation fighter for the Navy that is expected to replace the Cold War-era F/A-18 Super Hornets in U.S. Navy fleets.
Though that upcoming fighter is slated for entry into U.S. Navy service sometime in the 2030s, some in the Pentagon want to delay the sixth-generation fighter’s service debut by several years — potentially up to three years — due to concerns about the capacity of the American defense industry to produce the advanced fighter, as well as qualms about the engineering challenges the inherent to the advanced fighter jet’s design.
Though the winner of the F/A-XX program has yet to be announced, Lockheed Martin is the firm behind both the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighter, and it would be highly likely that the aerospace firm behind the original designs would be very involved in the two platform’s upgrade. Lockheed Martin lost out on the Next Generation Air Dominance program to Boeing. The NGAD program ultimately yielded the F-47 fighter for the U.S. Air Force. Pentagon officials previously explained that Lockheed had been eliminated from the F/A-XX program but that Northrup Grumman and Boeing remain in competition.
Still, some officials pushed back against reports of a three-year F/A-XX delay. “Nothing is being delayed,” an unnamed American official explained. It is unclear what that individual’s position in government is and how close that individual actually is to the F/A-XX program.
“A decision hasn’t been made yet. That decision is still being determined by [the Pentagon] and service leaders, with conversations among Congress as well. It’s a big program. Obviously these things don’t get settled on by one individual. Leaders are making a decision on whether to invest. It’s all part of the process.”
Upward and Onward
Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet told investors last month that the company would not challenge the Pentagon’s decision on the F-47 award win to Boeing but that it would instead leverage the engineering work that went into their NGAD bid for upgrading the F-22 and F-35 platforms into fighters that bridge the gap between fifth and sixth-generation.
“There are techniques and capabilities… that were developed for [our NGAD bid] that we can now apply here,” Taiclet said during a quarterly earnings call. “We’re basically going to take the [F-35′s] chassis and turn it into a Ferrari.”
Taiclet explained to investors that while the upgrade program wouldn’t yield an aircraft on par with what sixth-generation fighters promise to deliver, the upgrades would give the revamped jets “80% of the capability, potentially, at 50% of the cost per unit aircraft” compared to their newer counterparts.
“Eventually, there’ll be 3,500 of those [F-35] chassis out there at various stages of technology and capability [worldwide],” Taiclet said. “We think we can get most of the way to sixth-gen at half the cost.”
The U.S. Military Flies Into the Future
In the initial contract award given to Boeing, the U.S. Air Force committed to purchasing 185 of the new F-47s from Boeing, though that number would appear to be in flux and instead a baseline than the high end of potential acquisition numbers. The U.S. Air Force has another big-ticket aerospace project on the horizon — and one that could ultimately be hugely expensive: the B-21 Raider stealth bomber.
A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor taxis on the runway during a routine training schedule April 21, 2020, at Honolulu International Airport, Hawaii. Given the low traffic at the airport due to COVID-19 mitigation efforts, the active-duty 15th Wing and the Hawaii Air National Guard’s 154th Wing seized an opportunity to document the operation which showcases readiness and their unique Total Force Integration construct. The units of Team Hickam work together seamlessly to deliver combat airpower, tanker fuel, and humanitarian support and disaster relief across the Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Erin Baxter)
While that Northrup Grumman project is still in development, its price tag will not be cheap. And with other projects competing for the Pentagon’s dollars — namely the U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX fighter, but also the upgrade projects from Lockheed — it remains to be seen how big the slices of funding pie each project will receive.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
