Key Points and Summary – Lockheed Martin is quietly lobbying to save 35 early Block 20 F-22 Raptors from the scrapyard by folding them into an expanded upgrade plan now centered on newer Block 30/35 jets.
-Skunk Works chief OJ Sanchez says the company is in active talks with the Pentagon and Trump White House about turning those “trainer” Raptors back into combat-relevant airframes using open-architecture software, new sensors, and survivability upgrades.
F-22 Raptor. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-In parallel, CEO Jim Taiclet is pitching a “Ferrari” F-35 concept that would inject select sixth-generation tech into thousands of existing airframes, creating a fifth-gen-plus bridge force until the F-47 NGAD fighter arrives.
Lockheed’s New Plan: Rescue “Dead” F-22s and Build a Ferrari F-35 Fleet
Lockheed Martin is reportedly discussing plans to extend the scope of existing F-22 upgrade plans in a similar strategy to its proposed F-35 upgrade program.
Speaking at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference in Maryland on Monday, September 22, a Skunk Works official revealed plans to save F-22s slated for scrapping.
OJ Sanchez, the vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s secretive research and development team, revealed that discussions are underway to expand planned upgrades for the F-22 Raptor to include the older Block 20 aircraft that is currently used for training purposes.
How to Save Old F-22 Raptor Fighters
A total of 35 of these earlier F-22 variants remain in use and were originally slated to be destroyed.
If Lockheed gets its way, however, the manufacturer plans to expand the scope of ongoing upgrades to include Raptors built during the Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) phase in the early 2000s.
Specifically, Sanchez described “conversations around whether there is an opportunity to take the Block 20 fleet and continue to expand.” Sanchez said that the idea is not new, but stressed that he is hopeful the Trump administration will now seriously consider it.
F-22 Hawaiian Raptor flies over Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Dec. 5, 2019.
Currently, the F-22 Raptor upgrade program is focused primarily on the more recent Block 30 and 35 jets, incorporating modern technology into a platform developed in the 1990s and first introduced in 2005.
“The F-22 continues to be central to the U.S. Air Force’s force structure, and the ability to keep it at the forefront of the fight is paramount,” Sanchez said. “The F-22 program at Skunk Works is doing that.”
How the F-22 Stays So Powerful
Sanchez described how more modern Raptors are currently in a “hefty modernization” phase, with much of the work focusing on software.
As with similar upgrade programs for American air, sea, and land-based military hardware, a focus on open mission systems architecture ensures that upgraded platforms can be more readily upgraded in the future.
Lockheed’s idea to widen the F-22 package to include older Block 20 trainers is part of a broader corporate strategy: to stretch existing fleets with upgrades rather than wait for all-new airframes to be commissioned as part of a next-generation development program.
F-35 Also Could Get Big Updates in ‘Ferrari’ Program
The Air Force’s freshly upgraded F-22 fleet will include new IR defensive systems, radar enhancements, and more – and the U.S. Air Force’s willingness to stack new survivability layers on legacy stealth systems is evident not just in negotiations over the F-22, but in active discussions about broadening the scope of F-35 upgrade plans.
Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet has said on multiple occasions this year that the company aims to develop a fifth-gen-plus “Ferrari” F-35 that integrates selected sixth-gen technology to deliver “80% of six-gen capability at half the price.”
Taiclet has described how an enhanced F-35 chassis could handle sensor, processor, electronic warfare, teaming, and weapons upgrades at scale, providing the U.S. Air Force with access to a large fleet of aircraft built on a trusted and established platform, featuring next-generation capabilities.
F-35 Elephant Walk. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley conference earlier this year, Taiclet revealed that Lockheed is in “very active” talks with the Pentagon about the idea, confirming that the Trump White House is seriously considering additional upgrades as part of a bridging strategy.
While the U.S. Air Force awaits the F-47, and as the U.S. Navy recommits to the F/A-XX program with restored funding, the Pentagon is seriously considering further upgrades to protect American air dominance at a time when China and Russia are rapidly modernizing their own air fleets.
“There’s a very active engagement at an extremely high level with the Department of Defense, and I expect it’ll be taken to the White House sometime soon, hopefully, to consider this kind of concept,” Taiclet said to investors. “We’ve gotten encouraging feedback…there’s significant interest in the government about discussing aircraft modernization writ large, all the way up to the administration level, the White House level, and we’re in the middle of that with them, and we’re getting heard. We’re hearing back, and it’s pretty active.”
The Air Force Has Much to Consider
For the Air Force, the stakes are high – but particularly so when it comes to the F-22.
Though the fleet is capped at just under 190 combat-coded aircraft, the Raptor remains the service’s only dedicated air-dominance platform.
Retiring or limiting portions of that fleet, such as the 35 Block 20s still on hand, would shrink an already finite force at a time when Chinese J-20s are entering service in squadron numbers and Russia is pressing ahead with its own Su-57 deployments.
Image: Creative Commons. J-20 fighter.
Preserving older Raptors through modernization, Lockheed argues, ensures that the U.S. can maintain its fighter numbers while it waits on the still-nascent F-47.
With Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin confirmed that the first F-47 is already under construction and expected to fly in 2028, upgraded F-22s and F-35s are set to serve as a bridging fleet, integrating sixth-generation technology into proven fifth-generation platforms—assuming the Pentagon approves Lockheed’s proposals.
About the Author:
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York who writes frequently for National Security Journal. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society. His latest book is The Truth Teller: RFK Jr. and the Case for a Post-Partisan Presidency.
