Lockheed Martin said the US government is interested in its "fifth-generation-plus" idea for the F-35 stealth jet that would feature some technologies it developed for its failed bid to build the US's sixth-generation fighter.
CEO Jim Taiclet said on Thursday that there is "a very active engagement at an extremely high level with the Department of Defense" about the upgraded F-35, and that "I expect it will be taken to the White House sometime soon, hopefully, to consider this kind of concept."
Speaking at Morgan Stanley's Laguna Conference, he said there is no contract yet, but that if the jet is kept under the Pentagon's current approved plan, the souped-up F-35 would, over time, get near sixth-generation capability.
He said the new jet's technology could include stealth coating, better weapons, and a more advanced engine, which are sixth-generation systems — shorthand for the West's current cutting-edge materials and supercomputer-assisted designs. Fifth-generation systems, by contrast, refer to aircraft technologies developed during the 1990s and early 2000s.
The new jet would be considerably lower-cost than a sixth-generation jet, something Taiclet outlined at the event — an offering that could undercut the rationale for buying Boeing's sixth-generation F-47 fighter. Shares of Lockheed stock dipped after the loss of its next-generation fighter bid in March, and have since risen about 8%.
Taiclet's comments this week were the first indication of government interest, though US officials have not acknowledged any interest publicly. The Department of Defense, F-35 Program Office, and White House did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.
Taiclet first revealed the company's idea for what he called a "fifth-generation plus" fighter in April, comparing the company's planned upgrades to revamping a stalwart race car: "So we're basically going to take the chassis and turn it into a Ferrari. It's like a NASCAR upgrade, so to speak."
He said the company would use its years of experience as a premier stealth aircraft designer and its tech from the next-generation fighter.
Lockheed Martin this year lost its bid for the sixth-generation F-47 to Boeing, in a move that dealt a blow to the company's long-held dominance in the stealth fighter game. Lockheed said it was "disappointed" with the outcome.
But it soon announced its plan, with Taiclet saying the company's aim was to update the F-35 so it could match 80% of the F-47's capabilities for half the cost.
Taiclet's comments this week were the first indication of government interest, though US officials have not acknowledged any interest publicly.
Taiclet said on Thursday that at Lockheed Martin, "we still think sixth-generation aircraft should be developed," but that he believes the upgraded F-35 would be "incredible value" for the US, especially given that the sixth-generation program will take time.
President Donald Trump in May said he was interested in an upgraded F-35. But he described something that went far beyond what Lockheed Martin has publicly described: An F-35 that would have two engines, instead of the usual one. A former US Air Force pilot who was involved with the F-35 program described that idea to Business Insider as tantamount to building a whole new aircraft and likely to take decades and incur huge costs.
Taiclet said that the US could have around 1,000 to 1,500 fifth-gen-plus capable F-35s in the future, as two-thirds of the 2,300 F-35s that have been ordered but not yet delivered are bound for the US and could be upgraded with sixth-generation tech.
He said the government has "significant interest" in discussing aircraft modernization, "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."
But he said that if a contract is signed for the jet it may not be clear to investors, saying "the way to contract this will probably not be visible to folks because it will have so much classified content that it may not be disclosable. But I'm really quite confident that this concept has great merit."
He said, "We have an opportunity to really do something very valuable for the country given its growing but limited, ultimately, defense budget. We can provide value at that level at that scale by integrating sixth-generation technology, digital and physical into our aircraft we're already building, I think that's really worth considering for the government."
The fifth-generation F-35 first entered service in 2015, while the sixth-generation F-47, intended to be the US's most advanced stealth fighter ever, may be operational by the end of 2029, according to the US Air Force chief of staff.
