Lockheed Martin responds to NGAD loss with “5th-generation plus” F-35
Lockheed Martin has revealed that it will not protest Boeing’s victory in the NGAD (Next-Generation Air Dominance) competition, which will give rise to the new F-47, the sixth generation fighter of the US Air Force (USAF).
Jim Taiclet, the company’s CEO, commented on the loss of the contract during an earnings call on Tuesday. According to him, Lockheed received a confidential report from the USAF on the reasons why its proposal was defeated.
The feedback will be used internally to apply all the technologies offered in the NGAD to improved variants of the F-35 and F-22, the Air Force’s two main fighters.
“I feel we can have 80 percent of the capability potentially, at 50 percent of the cost per unit aircraft,” Taiclet said.
The plan is to take the F-35 chassis and apply several advanced technologies, some of which are already in development for the F-35 Block 4 upgrade.
The “5-plus generation” F-35 could cost about $150 million, or $60 million more than the current generation of the stealth fighter.
The initial proposal is to offer the “supercharged” F-35 to the U.S. military, but also to some specific partners, pending government approval.
Lockheed Martin has expressed optimism about the alternative given the large F-35 fleet projected. There are currently about 1,100 fighter jets in service, and the company expects to deliver at least 170 new aircraft by 2025 alone.
“There will be 3,500 of those chassis out there, at various stages of technology and capability. We think we can get most of the way to sixth-gen at half the cost,” said Evan Scott, the company’s chief financial officer.
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