Lockheed Martin has begun the \u201cengineering analysis\u201d around adding sixth-generation features to the company\u2019s fifth-generation fighters based on development work it did on the losing bid for the Air Force\u2019s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter won by Boeing earlier this year, Jim Taiclet, the company\u2019s chief, said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The goal of the analysis is to \u201cenhance the relevance and capability\u201d of the F-35 and F-22 with \u201cadvanced and expanded weapons compatibility, improved data links, autonomous drone wingman integration, superior sensors and the latest electronic warfare capabilities,\u201d Taiclet said in his scripted remarks during Lockheed Martin\u2019s third quarter earnings call.<\/p>\n
Later in the call, Taiclet said classified research and development on NGAD at the company\u2019s Skunk Works unit also included work on stealth, propulsion, inlet designs, coatings, \u201cwhich we can actually backward integrate into F-35 and F-22 and are doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n
After losing NGAD to Boeing last spring, Taiclet said in April that his company would leverage the \u201ctechnology and knowledge\u201d from the program and transfer them to the F-35 and F-22 to get 80 percent of the capabilities of the sixth-generation aircraft at half the cost.<\/p>\n
The engineering analysis on the F-35 and F-22 comes at the direction of Taiclet, he said. The upgrade effort is \u201cto provide the greatest aggregate level of air superiority capability at the most efficient cost and the fasted deployment,\u201d he added. \u201cThis is a total best value approach that we think will be best for the department. To that end, we are working closely with our customers to align our internal investments with their most important mission priorities for the F-35.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lockheed Martin has delivered more than 1,200 F-35s domestically and abroad, Taiclet said.<\/p>\n
Boeing\u2019s NGAD effort has been renamed F-47 after it won the engineering and manufacturing development contract.<\/p>\n
The targeted internal investments into the F-35 and F-22 aircraft are part of a new approach Lockheed Martin is taking toward the use of its internal research and development spending, Taiclet said. Rather than just portion out the R&D investments across the business units and leave it to them to sort out their priorities, some of this internal spending is focused on corporate R&D efforts, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lockheed Martin has begun the \u201cengineering analysis\u201d around adding sixth-generation features to the company\u2019s fifth-generation fighters based on development work it did on the losing bid for the Air Force\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[260,319],"class_list":["post-2684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-air","tag-f-22","tag-f-35"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/f22-f35.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2684"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2933,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684\/revisions\/2933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}