• President Donald Trump on Thursday floated the idea of a supercharged F-35 called the F-55.
• He said this aircraft would have two engines because he doesn't like single-engine planes.
• Lockheed Martin's CEO recently suggested upgrading the F-35 to become a "fifth-generation-plus" jet.

President Donald Trump on Thursday pitched plans for a new twin-engine version of the F-35 stealth fighter jet. He referred to the jet as the "F-55."

"The F-35, we're doing an upgrade — a simple upgrade — but we're also doing an F-55. I'm going to call it an F-55," Trump said during a business roundtable in Qatar, the second stop on his Middle East tour.

"That's going to be a substantial upgrade," with two engines, Trump said, "because an F-35 has a single engine; I don't like single engines." He then touted the four engines on a 747 because there's a backup if an engine goes out.

"We're going to do an F-55, I think, if we get the right price — we have to get the right price," the president said. "And that will be two engines and a super upgrade on the F-35."

The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is a fifth-generation stealth aircraft made by the US defense contractor Lockheed Martin. The jet was developed and manufactured as part of a multinational program. Since the first one rolled off the production line, over 1,100 have been delivered to the US and militaries around the world.

Some prominent figures inside Trumpworld have sharply criticized the expensive F-35 program, saying that it has been a wasteful debacle and unnecessary amid the rise in drone technology, but the president's comments in Qatar on Thursday appear to indicate continued support for the program. The F-35 is considered within the Defense Department to be a cornerstone of US airpower.

Last month, Lockheed CEO James Taiclet said that the defense firm would "supercharge" the F-35's capabilities to make it a "fifth-generation-plus" aircraft that could bring it nearly on par with a sixth-generation fighter jet.

"So the F-35. So we're basically going to take the chassis and turn it into a Ferrari. It's like a NASCAR upgrade, so to speak," Taiclet said during a first-quarter earnings call. He said Lockheed could outfit the F-35 with capabilities like better sensors, improved stealth technology, better systems, and longer-range weapons.

Taiclet's remarks came shortly after Lockheed lost a bid to build the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter, which Trump named the "F-47," to Boeing. The coming NGAD is expected to fight alongside drones and succeed the F-22 Raptor as the US Air Force's top air-superiority fighter.

On Thursday, Trump also proposed big upgrades to the F-22, saying the US is going to make an "F-22 Super."

• A US-Saudi arms agreement may get complicated when it comes to Lockheed Martin's F-35
• The F-35 could put Saudi Arabia's military on par with Israel in what may be a dealbreaker.
• The Saudis may also buy advanced US drones and missile defenses as part of the agreement.

During his visit to Saudi Arabia, President Donald Trump signed what the White House described as "the largest defense sales agreement in history," valued at almost $142 billion, that will provide the kingdom "state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services." The offer, the final value of which may ultimately prove much less than $142 billion, is expected to include Lockheed Martin's C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and other unspecified missiles and radars. Neither the White House nor administration officials have provided further details about which specific systems the deal may include, such as the advanced fighter Riyadh has wanted.

The two sides discussed a potential Saudi purchase of the F-35 Lightning II stealth strike fighter and Israel's qualitative military edge came up, Reuters reported Tuesday. The Saudis have sought the F-35 for years since it's one of the world's top fighter jets that could put the kingdom's armed forces on par with Israel, the only Middle Eastern country currently flying that fifth-generation combat aircraft. Washington is legally obligated to preserve Israel's military advantage by, among other things, not selling military hardware to regional countries that are as or more advanced than Israel's arsenal. Unlike the neighboring United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia has not joined the Abraham Accords by normalizing ties with Israel and refuses to do so amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

"I think an F-35 deal could be agreed upon even absent Saudi-Israeli normalization," Ryan Bohl, a senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at the risk intelligence company RANE, told Business Insider. "However, to proceed with the F-35 package, it would have to be significantly downgraded to preserve Israel's qualitative military edge."

"Such downgrades might diminish the overall sale's attractiveness to the Saudis."

Israel took delivery of three F-35s in March, bringing its total fleet strength to 42. It will field 75 eventually. Washington may not agree to sell Riyadh a comparable number, and it may impose limits on their use.

"I don't think numbers alone will be sufficient, as the Israelis will be concerned that such systems could eventually end up in the hands of adversaries," Bohl said. "Rather, I think we would likely see technical restrictions and end-use requirements that would severely limit the usage of F-35s by the Saudis and reduce their capabilities against the Israelis."

Israel's F-35I Adir is a unique version of the stealth aircraft that Israel modifies with indigenous weapons and systems. Therefore, the Adir is arguably already more advanced than any standard F-35A model Saudi Arabia might acquire.

Ultimately, it is Israel's arch-rival Iran that may have more concerns over the prospect of Saudi F-35s.

Any F-35 acquisition could give Saudi Arabia the "ability to conduct deep strikes in Iran" in ways far greater than presently possible with their current fleet of non-stealthy 4.5-generation F-15s, noted Sebastien Roblin, a widely published military-aviation journalist. Such an acquisition could also "substantially enhance" Saudi airpower and enable Riyadh to participate in any US or Israeli bombing campaign against Iran.

"I can see such an acquisition affecting the perceived regional balance of power vis-à-vis Tehran," Roblin told BI.

"That said, in a large-scale conflict, questions would arise about the vulnerability of these aircraft to Iranian strikes when they landed," Roblin said. "And whether these countries could acquire enough F-35s with enough munitions and muster sufficient professionalism and support assets to minimize risks of combat losses."

Riyadh may not prioritize acquiring the F-35 and seek other advanced American armaments.

The US is much more open to exporting advanced drones to Middle Eastern countries than just a few years ago, when Washington largely followed the range and payload limitations suggested by the Missile Technology Control Regime for exported systems.

Before Trump's trip, Washington green-lighted a potential sale of MQ-9B drones to Qatar. General Atomics is expected to offer Saudi Arabia MQ-9B SeaGuardians as part of a "huge" package deal.

"I think the weakening of end-use restrictions will certainly make the Americans more eager to strike deals to sell their drones to the region," RANE's Bohl said. "American drones will still need to compete against Turkish and Chinese drones that may be cheaper and have fewer political strings attached."

When Washington previously declined Middle East requests for advanced American drones, China stepped in and supplied its drones throughout the region in the 2010s. In the 2020s, Saudi Arabia and the UAE signed lucrative contracts with Turkey for its indigenous Bayraktar drones.

"I wouldn't expect a major surge in American drone exports to the region at this point, but rather for them to become part of this region's drone diversification strategy," Bohl said. "Certainly, there will be notable deals struck in the coming years, but China and Turkey will continue to be formidable competitors in the drone arena in the Arab Gulf states."

The White House mentioned that the $142 billion agreement includes "air and missile defense."

"If we are looking at recent trends, they should be focusing on air defenses, including deeper stocks of interceptor missiles, and diversification of air defenses to cost-efficiently combat lower-end threats as well as high-end ones," Roblin said.

Saudi Arabia already operates advanced US Patriot air defense missiles and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, which can target ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere. It completed its first locally manufactured components of the latter system mere days before Trump's visit. Riyadh may seek similar co-production deals to aid in developing its domestic arms industry.

"There's a need for more long-distance precision strike weapons in the form of missiles and drones, which can be used without risking expensive manned combat aircraft," Roblin said. "There should be some parallel interest at sea, where we've seen Ukraine and the Houthis successfully execute sea denial strategies, one that Iran might seek to imitate in the confined waters of the Gulf."

"Thus, the homework of Gulf navies is to ensure their vessels have the sensors and self-defense weapons to cope with small boat threats and cruise and ballistic missiles."

Saudi Arabia has already taken steps to expand its navy with more advanced warships in recent years. RANE's Bohl believes Trump may persuade the kingdom to "purchase big-ticket items like warships" as he attempts to "revitalize the manufacturing sector" in the US.

Only a fraction of this $142 billion agreement may result in completed deals — as was the case with the series of letters of intent for $110 billion worth of arms sales Trump signed with Riyadh in 2017.

"These deals involve optioning huge defense sales, but Trump will present these to his supporters as done deals," Roblin said. "So, the Gulf states can gift Trump a large number as a political victory without actually having to pay anywhere near the whole bill."

"For the 2017 defense deal, by the following year, Riyadh reportedly had bought only $14.5 billion out of $110 billion optioned."

Paul Iddon is a freelance journalist and columnist who writes about Middle East developments, military affairs, politics, and history. His articles have appeared in a variety of publications focused on the region.

• Boeing's CEO said its win over Lockheed Martin "will secure our fighter franchise for decades to come."
• He called being selected for the first US sixth-generation aircraft a key step for Boeing's future.
• While Boeing has continued to build other fighter jets, the contract is a big return to the stealth fighter game.

Boeing's CEO said that the US Air Force's pick of its sixth-generation fighter design over Lockheed Martin cements its spot in the fighter jet business. The win puts it back in the stealth fighter game after its Joint Strike Fighter loss over two decades ago.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said on an earnings call on Wednesday that President Donald Trump and the Air Force awarding Boeing the contract to build the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter, called the F-47, was "a transformational accomplishment."

He said being the prime defense contractor for the world's first sixth-generation fighter "will secure our fighter franchise for decades to come." He later added that the "F-47 win is a key step for building our future, cementing our franchise in the fighter business."

Competition for the next-gen fighter was stiff, with fighter jet designs from Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman under consideration. When the latter withdrew from the project, it left only the same two contractors that competed for the Joint Strike Fighter at the turn of the century.

The announcement that Boeing will build the next stealth fighter jet came after decades of Lockheed Martin dominating the stealth fighter industry. Lockheed's Skunk Works built the first operational stealth aircraft, the F-117 Nighthawk, and then it was the prime contractor for both US fifth-gen stealth fighters, the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

Lockheed's selection for what later became the F-35 program in 2001 was a heavy blow to Boeing, which had worked with Lockheed on the F-22, a fifth-generation air superiority fighter. The coming F-47 is expected to replace F-22, and it is expected to be ready for combat by the end of this decade.

In 2022, the head of Boeing's defense division, Ted Colbert, said that "fighters are an important business to the Boeing Company" and that "we haven't given up the fight in that space. We are continuing to invest in it."

Boeing builds capable fourth-generation fighters like the Air Force's F-15 Eagle and Navy's F/A-18 Super Hornets, but until recently, it had been out of the stealth fighter game for a while.

Lockheed Martin's CEO said in response to the decision that it would not protest Boeing's selection for the NGAD program. Instead, the company is talking about supercharging the F-35 jet, turning it into a kind of fifth-gen plus fighter aircraft.

James Taiclet said on a Lockheed earnings call this week that the company would instead upgrade the F-35 to be able to reach 80% of the F-47's capabilities for half the cost. He said that the effort would be informed by what the company learned in its bid for the sixth-generation fighter contract.

The new Boeing contract is said to be cost-plus, which means the government covers Boeing's expenses as it develops the jet and also gives Boeing a fee that can be altered based on how well the jet performs.

Ortberg was questioned about this and what risk the company was taking with the F-47 on Wednesday's call and responded by saying he would not comment on the contract structure.

He said that Boeing had not committed to any "undue risk." The Boeing CEO added that "clearly, we haven't come off our strategy of ensuring we're entering into the appropriate contract type for the appropriate type of work.

"I wouldn't worry that we've signed up to undue risk like we've done in some of our past fixed price programs, but that's about all I can say on that right now," he said. Boeing lost billions of dollars on the contract for the new Air Force One.

Boeing presented a positive picture of the company's defense business and overall finances in its earnings call, reporting a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss.

It reported a loss of 49 cents per share in the first quarter, while analysts had expected it to report an adjusted loss of $1.29 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG and reported by Reuters.

Brian West, Boeing's executive vice president and chief financial officer, said on the call that Boeing's core defense business "remains solid, representing approximately 60% of our revenue and performing in the mid to high single digit margin range. The demand for these products remains very strong, supported by the threat environment confronting our nation and our allies."

He said "the game plan" is to get the Boeing Defense, Space & Security division "back to high single-digit margins."

He said that "the defense portfolio is well-positioned for the future, and we still expect the business to return to historical performance levels as we continue to stabilize production, execute on development programs, and transition to new contracts with tighter underwriting standards."

When Trump announced Boeing's NGAD contract win in March, the president suggested the US might export the jet, but it would be a less-capable version. The US regularly sells modified export versions of weapons, but that is a notable departure from the F-35. The F-22 notably was never exported.

It's unclear what this will mean for the F-47, as it's still early days. Lately, Trump's isolation of allies has rattled the F-35 program. Some European companies have been seeking to capitalize, but that program continues.

Frank Kendall, the former secretary of the US Air Force during the Biden administration, said on Defense & Aerospace Report's "Air Power" podcast in March that he doubted US allies would be willing to buy the F-47 because of the expected costs and the new attitude toward allies.

Kendall paused the NGAD program last year over concerns about the potential cost — some estimates were as high as $300 million per plane — and questions about whether a new crewed fighter aircraft is what the Air Force needs for future fights. He left that decision to the Trump administration.

After the decision, Kendall questioned whether the new administration rushed into the F-47. Congress, he said, needs to ask hard questions: "Is this the right airplane for our defense strategy? Is it affordable? Does it displace higher priorities?"

• James Taiclet says he has a new idea for Lockheed Martin: Beef up the F-35 with its failed bid for NGAD.
• Lockheed Martin lost the bid for the NGAD, now called the F-47, to Boeing.
• Taiclet wants his engineers to integrate tech and ideas from their sixth-gen research into the F-35.

Lockheed Martin didn't win the bid for America's next-generation fighter, but its CEO still wants to build a jet that's in almost the same league.

At the company's first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, James Taiclet said he has set a new goal for his staff: To soup up the F-35 so it can match 80% of the F-47's capabilities for half the cost.

"My challenge to my aeronautics team is, let's get 80% of sixth-gen capability at half the price," Taiclet said.

"And that's something that — and these are engineers, they wouldn't have agreed to this if they didn't think there was a path to get there — that's something we're going to go out and do," he added.

Taiclet called this "fifth-generation plus." Lockheed's plan to get there, he said, would leverage its experience from years of working to win the bid for the next-generation fighter.

The firm ultimately lost the bid for the sixth-generation stealth fighter to Boeing, which President Donald Trump announced in late March as the selected manufacturer. That decision rocked Lockheed's reputation in the stealth fighter game, which it had dominated with the Nighthawk, F-22 Raptor, and F-35 Lightning II.

At Tuesday's earnings call, Taiclet said Lockheed wants to move on from losing the award.

"We are not going to protest the NGAD decision of the US government," he said, referring to Next-Generation Air Dominance, which is the US program to create the sixth-generation successor to the F-22. "We are moving forward and moving out on applying all the technologies that we developed for our NGAD bid onto our embedded base of F-35 and F-22."

"It's a little kind of — not uncomfortable — but novel for our industry to think that way," Taiclet added. "But we are thinking that way."

He compared his ambition to beefing up a road vehicle so much that it becomes a race car.

"So, the F-35. 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.

Taiclet said Lockheed had worked on developing better sensors and stealth techniques for its sixth-gen bid, and could apply those technologies to improve the F-35. He also mentioned a newer tracking system and longer-range weapons.

He told analysts that the idea is for advanced aircraft to avoid dogfights if they can. "We want to shoot the other guy, as I said, before he even knows we're there," he said.

Boeing's F-47 is meant to be America's most advanced stealth fighter yet, with plans for the aircraft to fly in tandem with semiautonomous "wingmen" drones. With air superiority as its priority, one of the next-generation fighter's primary roles is to destroy enemy aircraft.

Meanwhile, the F-35, a multi-role fighter that entered service in 2015, is Lockheed's headline export. Taiclet said the company expects to deliver between 170 and 190 F-35s in 2025, with a backlog of about 360 more aircraft.

Lockheed reported a net profit of $1.7 billion for the first quarter ending on March 30, up from $1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2024. Earnings of $7.28 per share beat Wall Street's expectations of $6.34 per share.

The company's stock price climbed 0.82% to $462.08 at market close on Tuesday.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin did not respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

• Dutch F-35 jets helped a rocket artillery system destroy a target during a real-time multi-domain exercise.
• The process demonstrates how Lockheed Martin's F-35 can quarterback missions.
• The F-35s passed data to a command and control system, which then had artillery engage the target.

In a matter of minutes during a recent exercise, F-35 stealth fighters penetrated hostile airspace, collected critical targeting data, and relayed it to a rocket artillery unit to eliminate a target.

The achievement marked a first live classified data share outside of the US, defense giant Lockheed Martin said this week. The capabilities demonstration came during a recent exercise in the Netherlands, and the event highlighted the jet's interoperability and also how the F-35 can quarterback missions.

The jets stealthily collected target data in an anti-access, area-denial environment, relayed combat information, and enabled a unit to conduct strikes that it might otherwise have been unable to do on its own, a key function of the fifth-generation aircraft.

Lockheed Martin shared this week that its Skunk Works and the Royal Netherlands Air Force completed the data share between an in-flight F-35 and Keystone, a Dutch command and control system, at Leeuwarden Air Base during Ramstein Flag 2025, NATO's largest tactical air exercise.

The scenario involved Dutch F-35s locating and identifying a simulated enemy ground target in a denied environment and passing that data to Keystone via Multifunction Advanced Datalink through a Skunk Works' Open Systems Gateway. The command and control system passed that information to an unspecified artillery unit.

The rocket artillery engaged a ground target and confirmed successful takedown, effectively closing the loop," Lockheed Martin said. 

The F-35's role in this exercise points toward two of its strengths: advanced capabilities like all-aspect stealth, advanced avionics, and high-end sensors that help it operate in contested airspace and networking abilities that make it as much a sensor platform as it is a shooter, gathering critical information for other weapons systems to use in destroying enemy targets.

The F-35 has been referred to as a quarterback, leading the team even if it's not taking the shots itself. 

Lockheed said that "by unlocking the vast amount of data from an F-35, the Skunk Works OSG enables allied air and missile defense systems to receive precise targeting information, allowing them to detect, track, and defeat threats more effectively." In this case, it was rocket artillery instead of air defense.

The achievement during this recent exercise comes at a somewhat shaky time for the F-35. Tensions created by the Trump administration's attitude toward European allies and NATO have driven some allied nations to reconsider their interest in acquiring the fifth-generation jet.

However, while President Donald Trump's actions have caused concerns, it doesn't seem that countries are overwhelmingly ready to walk away from the program just yet. The F-35 is in service with militaries around the world.

OJ Sanchez, vice president and general manager for Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, said in a statement that "the combined joint all-domain capabilities demonstrated at Ramstein Flag are a breakthrough in multi-domain operations, emphasizing the F-35's ability to seamlessly integrate with our international partners' C2 environments."

The F-35 program, the world's most expensive weapon's program, has faced criticisms throughout its development, and it continues to grapple with persistent concerns about the cost and sustainability, as well as readiness. It is still considered a top fighter aircraft, exceeding the capabilities of rivals.

• Boeing won the $20 billion contract to develop the Air Force's sixth-gen stealth fighter, the F-47.
• The designation is a nod to the P-47 fighter, the USAF's founding year, and the 47th president.
• See the competing NGAD fighter designs proposed by Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.

Boeing will develop the US Air Force's highly anticipated sixth-generation stealth fighter, poised to replace the F-22 Raptor and play a leading role in the Air Force's future fleet.

The sixth-generation combat aircraft is a central component of the Air Force's secretive and costly Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD), which seeks to fly the future fighter, designated the F-47, alongside autonomous drone wingmen known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA).

Though never officially confirmed, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman competed for the $20 billion contract. Northrop Grumman dropped out of the running in 2023, leaving Boeing to battle it out with Lockheed Martin's dominance of the stealth fighter force.

Boeing's successful bid

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Boeing was selected to develop the future combat aircraft, which will be designated the F-47.

The designation is a deviation from typical naming conventions because it was previously used for the World War II-era fighter, the P-47.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said the designation is a nod to the P-47 escort fighter of World War II, as well as the Air Force's founding year in 1947 and the "pivotal" support of the 47th US President Donald Trump in developing the aircraft.

Winning the $20 billion NGAD contract will serve as a much-needed boost not only to its waning defense unit but also to recoup losses from the KC-46 tanker and new Air Force One aircraft.

Steve Parker, interim president, and chief executive of Boeing Defense, Space, and Security, said the company made "the most significant investment in the history of our defense business" after being tasked with designing, building, and delivering the sixth-generation fighter to the Air Force.

"We are ready to provide the most advanced and innovative NGAD aircraft needed to support the mission," Parker said in a statement.

The US Air Force's next-gen stealth plane

The pursuit for America's next-generation platforms began over a decade ago in the early 2010s.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched a study in 2014 to explore strategies to maintain the US' edge in air superiority. It found that simply developing sixth-generation combat aircraft wouldn't be enough to ensure air superiority against US adversaries, instead urging a "family of systems" across multiple domains, including air, space, and cyberspace.

Air superiority is the condition where a nation's aircraft can fly at minimal risk from other aircraft and surface-to-air missiles. The US's longtime edge in achieving this is increasingly threatened by the proliferation of air defense missiles and China's aircraft build-up, including two types of stealth fighters.

Building upon DARPA's findings, the Air Force launched its own study, Air Superiority 2030, which laid the groundwork for its NGAD program, which envisioned creating a future hybrid fleet of crewed and uncrewed aerial systems.

As one of the Air Force's most sensitive and highly classified programs, few details were publicly known about the NGAD program.

In September 2020, Will Roper, then-Air Force acquisition chief, officially confirmed that the service had test-flown a prototype of its next-gen fighter. This was the first public acknowledgment of the top-secret program that he said he hoped would garner "greater credibility" on the program's progress.

By 2023, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman appeared to be in the running to develop the NGAD platform, floating potential designs for it in promotional materials for their future projects — a common practice among US military aircraft manufacturers.

Northrop Grumman — the lead contractor for the B-2 Spirit and B-21 Raider stealth bombers — was also in the running to build the NGAD aircraft but dropped out of consideration as the prime developer in 2023, instead intending to support other bids as a supplier.

Early concept designs

Art renderings of the NGAD fighter show little more than the jet's sleek exterior and wings, revealing few details about the aircraft's final design.

But concept designs released by the three competing legacy combat aircraft contractors could give an idea of what the F-47 could look like when it takes to the skies.

In a promotional video released by Boeing Phantom Works in 2023, a brief rendering of a 3D model stealth plane showed assembling mid-flight to showcase the digital design capabilities to streamline the development of innovative aircraft.

The hypothetical stealth aircraft appears to feature a flat, tailless cranked wing design with two engines.

A fighter jet upset

Before Boeing was selected to build the F-47, Lockheed Martin had a monopoly on the Air Force's combat aircraft production, leading some to believe that it would be the prime contractor of the NGAD platform.

Following the fighter jet upset, Boeing's share price jumped 3% to $5.28 a share on Friday, adding $4 billion in market value. Meanwhile, Lockheed's stock dropped about 5.4% to $27.04 a share, an estimated $6 billion loss in market value.

"While disappointed with this outcome, we are confident we delivered a competitive solution," Lockheed Martin said in a statement.

Boeing has long been a major player in the military aerospace sector, including developing the F-15 and F/A-18 fighter jets and the KC-46 aerial tanker.

However, unlike competitors like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, which secured domestic contracts for the F-22 Raptor and B-2 Spirit stealth aircraft respectively, Boeing's long-term defense production largely relies on foreign acquisition and international defense sales.

Boeing and Lockheed previously faced off to develop the fifth-generation multirole fighter as part of the Pentagon's Joint Strike Fighter program. Lockheed's X-35 beat out Boeing's X-32, entering production as the F-35 Lightning II.

Lockheed's NGAD design

Lockheed's hint at its potential NGAD concept proposal was a lot more subtle. In 2023, Lockheed's Skunk Works division posted a black-and-white aircraft outline on its Instagram to celebrate its 80th anniversary.

Despite the lack of details in the cryptic post, the planform appears to resemble a tactical aircraft design, likely related to the Air Force's NGAD program.

Lockheed further pointed to its potential future participation in the NGAD by releasing another promotional video later that year, seemingly referring to the Air Force's pursuit of a hybrid fleet. The video features crewed and uncrewed systems flying in formation, with Lockheed's F-35 surrounded by futuristic UAVs.

Northrop Grumman withdraws NGAD bid

Northrop Grumman was also competing to be the prime contractor behind the Air Force's NGAD aircraft. The company hinted at its interest in participating in the NGAD program in a 2021 promotional video that appeared to include a tailless stealth fighter in a hangar with historic and futuristic aircraft.

But Northrop Grumman's bid to build the NGAD fighter was cut short after it pulled out of consideration in 2023, CEO Kathy Warden announced.

Warden added that the company was "responding to other bidders' request for proposal as the supplier, that's particularly in our mission system portfolio."

Navy's next-gen fighter up for grabs

Northrop Grumman was selected to build the B-21 Raider, the Air Force's first sixth-generation stealth bomber, as part of the service's Long Range Strike Bomber program.

The company unveiled the stealth bomber in late 2022, and the aircraft took its maiden flight in November 2023.

Northrop Grumman is still in the running against Boeing to develop the Navy's next-generation fighter, the F/A-XX, which aims to replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

Steep ambitions, steep price tag

The NGAD's steep ambitions to revolutionize the US air superiority mission come with an equally steep price tag. In 2018, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the NGAD airframe alone could cost up to $300 million each.

Then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in 2023 that he anticipated the unit cost to be "too expensive to be purchased in large numbers," revealing the service's plan to team each NGAD with two CCAs.

From 2022 to 2024, Congress allocated $5.1 billion to develop NGAD-related technologies, which included a "strategic pause" in the program due to high project costs. In 2025, the Biden administration requested $2.75 billion to build an NGAD platform, which could skyrocket to an estimated $5.72 billion by 2029.

'China is a threat today'

Kendall emphasized the pressing need for the NGAD "family of systems" amid evolving threats by US adversaries, especially after the Pentagon truncated the procurement of F-22 jets from 750 to 187 in 2009.

"NGAD will include attributes such as enhanced lethality and the ability to survive, persist, interoperate, and adapt in the air domain, all within highly contested operational environments," Kendall said in May 2023. "No one does this better than the US Air Force, but we will lose that edge if we don't move forward now."

The urgency is also spurred in part by China's increasingly sophisticated long-range air defense and electronic warfare systems as China-Taiwan tensions contribute to growing militarization in the Indo-Pacific.

The F-47 is expected to operate closely with two new uncrewed fighters, so-called "loyal wingmen" that are capable of flying missions too dangerous for a pilot in the cockpit.

In a potential war scenario with China, defense analysts argued the F-22's limited range and payload capacity would be ill-suited for the terrain, consisting of islands spread hundreds of miles apart, leaving the fleet vulnerable to attack during refueling efforts.

"China is not a future threat; China is a threat today," Kendall said during a 2024 keynote address.

"I am not saying war in the Pacific is imminent or inevitable. It is not," he added. "But I am saying that the likelihood is increasing and will continue to do so."

• Lockheed Martin has dominated the stealth fighter jet game for decades, but that's changing.
• Boeing was awarded a contract for the Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance fighter.
• The new F-47 fighter is set to go beyond the capabilities of Lockheed's fifth-gen F-22 and F-35.

Defense and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has dominated the stealth fighter jet game, building not only the first operational stealth aircraft but also both US fifth-generation stealth fighter jets.

But the Trump administration's new decision on the new Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter was a stunning upset for Lockheed's industry-leading Skunk Works.

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that the US Air Force's new sixth-generation stealth fighter, dubbed the F-47, will be built by Boeing. He said that the new fighter aircraft will be the most advanced, capable, and lethal aircraft "ever built," with unprecedented speed, maneuverability, and payload capacity, as well as "state-of-the-art stealth technologies."

Lockheed, a leading player in stealth aircraft for nearly five decades, expressed disappointment in the decision.

"Lockheed Martin continues to work to advance critical technologies to outpace emerging threats and deliver true 21st Century Security® solutions to our nation's military forces," the company said in a statement. "While disappointed with this outcome, we are confident we delivered a competitive solution. We will await further discussions with the US Air Force."

A leader in stealth aircraft

In the 1970s, long before the company merged with Martin Marietta in 1995, Lockheed Corporation's secret Skunk Works division developed the world's first operational stealth aircraft, the F-117 Nighthawk; it was designed around the idea of evading radar detection. From its introduction in 1983, the aircraft became a major Air Force asset and was later known for its prominent role in the first Gulf War.

The Nighthawks flew over one thousand sorties in that war and struck Iraqi targets with a high success rate and without suffering any combat losses. The penetrating attack aircraft's stealth capabilities garnered much attention.

The aircraft has retired from combat, but it is still used as a training tool.

Lockheed was a prime contractor for the fifth-generation fighter, the F-22 Raptor, as part of a partnership project that also saw contributions from Boeing and Pratt & Whitney.

First introduced in 2005 as an air dominance solution to Russian and Chinese threats, the supersonic stealth fighter has long been considered the top US air superiority fighter.

But its matchless capabilities and whopping $350 million price tag per fighter jet were overkill for the counter-insurgency wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The last of the F-22s was delivered in 2012.

The Air Force has been on the hunt for its successor, envisioning the the replacement to be a family of systems that can boost US air dominance by leveraging drones and other advanced capabilities. In 2021, Air Force leadership hinted the F-22 would not be part of the future fleet. The F-22 Raptor is expected to be replaced by the NGAD in 2030. 

Lockheed was also the prime contractor for another fifth-generation stealth fighter, the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. The company went head-to-head with Boeing for this program, winning a contract with its X-35 design over the competing X-32.

The F-35 fighter jet is available in three variants: conventional takeoff and landing, short-takeoff and vertical landing, and carrier-based operations. The advanced single-engine fighter is flown by the US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, as well as US partners and allies. 

The F-35 is one of the world's most advanced weapons programs; it is also the most expensive, with an expected lifetime cost of more than $2 trillion. It's been sharply criticized by some, such as Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk, for its design, costs, sustainability challenges, and developmental setbacks. 

While the F-47 award was a blow to Lockheed, it was a much-needed win for Boeing after a rough 2024 saw structural malfunctions, such as the Alaskan Airlines Flight 1282 door emergency, delayed production on new planes, and other company issues.

"We recognize the importance of designing, building and delivering a 6th-generation fighter capability for the US Air Force," said Steve Parker, interim president and chief executive officer for Boeing Defense, Space & Security, per the company's statement. 

"In preparation for this mission, we made the most significant investment in the history of our defense business, and we are ready to provide the most advanced and innovative NGAD aircraft needed to support the mission."

The new F-47 stems from two X-planes built under Defense Advanced Research Project Agency research and development contracts by Boeing and Lockheed; that project came out of a 2014 air dominance study. The secret designs laid the groundwork for the new sixth-gen F-47 fighter program.

• Canada is reviewing its contract with Lockheed Martin for F-35 fighter jets, the country's Defense Minister said.
• The review comes amid rising tensions between Ottawa and Washington.
• It comes after Portugal said it was also reconsidering purchasing the jet.

Canada is reviewing its contract with US defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin to purchase F-35 fighter jets, its defense minister said on Friday.

Speaking to CBC, Bill Blair said he had spoken with newly appointed Prime Minister Mark Carney and that they were now looking at "other alternatives" to the F-35.

"It was the fighter jet identified by our air force as the platform that they required, but we are also examining other alternatives," Blair said.

"Whether we need all of those fighter jets to be F-35s or if there might be alternatives, the prime minister has asked me to go and examine those things and have discussions with other sources, particularly where there may be opportunities to assemble those fighter jets in Canada," he added.

Canada finalized a contract in 2023 to purchase 88 F-35 jets for C$19 billion (around $13.2 billion), with the first aircraft expected to be delivered to the F-35 training center at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona in 2026. The jet is set to arrive in Canada in 2028.

Lockheed Martin beat out Sweden's Saab — maker of the Gripen E jet — and Boeing — which produces the F/A-18 Super Hornet — to secure the contract.

Blair's comments came just a day after Portugal announced that it was also reconsidering purchasing the F-35.

Portuguese Defense Minister Nuno Melo told local outlet Público on Thursday that he was wary of replacing older US-made F-16 fighter jets with F-35s in the wake of President Donald Trump's recent policy shifts.

Melo said Trump's unpredictability with regard to his stance on NATO meant Portugal had to weigh up other options, adding: "We cannot ignore the geopolitical environment in our choices."

Business Insider has contacted the Canadian Defense Ministry and Lockheed Martin for comment.

Blair's announcement comes amid heightened tensions between Ottawa and Washington over Trump's repeated tariff threats and comments about adopting Canada as the 51st US state.

Trump's moves have led to an outpouring of patriotism in Canada and seen some locals push back by abandoning US consumer brands in favor of Canadian alternatives.

• Portugal is reconsidering the purchase of F-35s over changing US relations with Europe.
• Portugal is gearing up to spend $6 billion transitioning its air force to the jet.
• But its defense minister said Donald Trump's stance toward NATO "must be taken into account."

Portugal says it's uneasy about replacing its older US-made F-16 fighter jets with F-35s over doubts about President Donald Trump's behavior toward the US's allies, as well as future access to maintenance and parts.

On Thursday, Portuguese Defense Minister Nuno Melo told the newspaper Público that "we cannot ignore the geopolitical environment in our choices."

He also said the most recent US posture toward NATO "must make us think about the best options."

Melo, who also leads Portugal's CDS-People's Party, did not entirely rule out buying the planes, but said: "The world has already changed."

If Portugal does reverse course, it would represent the loss of a lucrative contract for Lockheed Martin, the jet's manufacturer, that appeared to have been all but locked in.

Last April, Portugal's air force chief of staff, Gen. João Cartaxo Alves, said pilot training with Lockheed Martin and the US Air Force had already begun ahead of an anticipated $6 billion transition to the F-35.

The F-35 Lightning II is considered one of the world's most advanced fighter jets.

A chill in the air

Melo's statements came amid a distinct chilling of relations between the US and Europe, particularly over military matters.

Trump has sidelined European leaders from recent Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations and has repeatedly criticized Europe's financial contributions to Ukraine's defense.

Melo said Portugal had always seen the US as a reliable ally but recent US changes in stance toward NATO and the rest of the world must be taken into account.

He also raised concerns that the US could place limitations on the maintenance and supply of components for the F-35: "Everything that has to do with ensuring that aircraft will be operational and used in all types of scenarios."

Portugal is facing snap elections after its government lost a vote of confidence this week, throwing further uncertainty over the country's long-term stance toward the jet.

At least 10 European countries have F-35s in their fleets, and Lockheed Martin has industrial partnerships in six European nations. The company has described the F-35 as the "NATO standard fighter of choice."

Norway announced in February that it had taken delivery of three more F-35s, bringing its fleet of the aircraft to 49.

Earlier this week, the Netherlands' defense minister, Ruben Brekelmans, told reporters that F-35 partner countries remained fully committed to the program.

In a statement sent to BI, Lockheed Martin said it "values our strong partnership and history with the Portuguese Air Force and looks forward to continuing that partnership into the future."

It also said questions about foreign military sales of the F-35 were best addressed by the US government.

The White House and the Department of Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

• Lockheed Martin's F-35 is widely recognized as a top fighter jet.
• However, the program has been troubled by cost and readiness concerns for years.
• The makers of this fifth-generation aircraft told BI their thoughts on how to address these.

Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is a combat-proven fifth-generation jet, but the supersonic stealth plane has consistently faced cost and readiness concerns.

Business Insider recently visited the factory where these advanced aircraft are produced and asked the makers about the challenges facing this program and potential changes that might help reduce sustainability costs and improve mission capability rates.

The lifetime F-35 program costs are now expected to top $2 trillion, and sustainability costs are rising. Yet the Government Accountability Office assessed last year that the F-35 isn't hitting mission-capable rates and hasn't for years. These are key criticisms the fighter has faced.

A Lockheed representative said that addressing these issues comes down to reliably investing in parts and maintenance. Edward Smith, the company's F-35 business development director, said that "to maintain a fleet at any given readiness level, you have to fully fund your supply system."

The Joint Program Office previously told BI that readiness tends to improve with a healthy supply of parts for maintenance.

Smith said that the F-35 has historically been underfunded in terms of the supply purchased for the aircraft and depot repair capacity, adding that it's important to get the supply of sustainment parts at a level that matches the jet's readiness needs.

"If the parts are available and on the shelf," he said, then "we can get to the readiness rates that are desired by all of our customers that are out there."

And for overall costs, he said that as more F-35s roll off the production line and the supply pool of parts grows, the aircraft will become increasingly cheaper to operate. Over the last decade, explained Smith, it has seen a 50% reduction in cost-per-flight-hour, in some cases making it as expensive to fly as fourth-generation jets being made today but delivering more capability.

Smith said that the average mission capability rates for the F-35, which is the percentage of time it can perform one mission, tend to be between the high 50s and high 60s.

This figures are higher on combat deployments; the US military averages an 80% mission capability rate for the F-35 on every combat deployment it's done, and for the Israelis, since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, the number is almost 90%, he said.

"It exactly matches our funding level for parts. Traditionally, we've been funded at about 70% availability, and that's if nothing broke," Smith said. "If you don't fund supply, you cannot have the readiness," he added.

A combat-proven fifth-gen fighter

The F-35 is the US military's second fifth-generation fighter jet after the air-superiority F-22 Raptor. The jet comes in three variants designed for conventional runway and ship-based operations and is flown by the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy.

The US military has flown all three F-35 variants — the A, B, and C variants — in strike missions against terror groups in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

The Israel Defense Forces were the first to fly the jet into battle. They operate their own version (the F-35I) and have flown it into combat, battling Syrian missile batteries, shooting down drones, and striking Iranian military sites.

The jets, however, were built for a higher level of warfare, which would demand the advantages offered by its all-aspect stealth, sensor suite, networked systems, and combat power, all capabilities required for combating next-gen aircraft and high-end surface-to-air threats.

The F-35 was developed and manufactured as part of a multinational partnership, and over 1,110 jets have been delivered. Many US allies operate the aircraft, with more countries looking to acquire this plane in the future. It's considered a cornerstone for US airpower.

Improving the program

The F-35 program relies on a shared contractor and government-based maintenance system. How contracts are issued may affect how readiness issues are fixed. To increase efficiency, "we need to drive to more performance-based sustainment contracts," Smith said.

He said sustainment for the F-35 is contracted on an annual basis. He called this process inefficient and "very costly," arguing that it doesn't allow the industry to plan and invest strategically because it's uncertain what the next annual contract could look like.

"There's definitely room to increase efficiency in how we contract for these systems and put the onus on industry to perform," he said.

"That's what we continue to strive for is those performance-based contracts that we not only get as a prime, but also with our suppliers," Smith said, noting this gives them "long-term certainty and forecasting so we can invest to improve the metrics for this airplane."

Performance-based contracting is centered on the results achieved from a specific program in terms of requirements rather than the cost or time needed to ultimately achieve them.

Michael Bohnert, a licensed engineer at the RAND Corporation, said that longer-term contracts tend to be more efficient than annual contracts for long-term acquisition because they provide the industry an opportunity to plan.

Performance-based contracts "can be an effective tool," he told BI, "but they require a deeper understanding of the systems to set adequate performance goals with accurate pricing."

The F-35 JPO, which leads the aircraft's life-cycle program management, acknowledged that annualized sustainment contracts are not ideal for reducing costs and improving readiness. However, it said bad performance contracts can arguably be worse.

"Key considerations for performance contracts include funding stability for sustainment, confidence in data for forecasting and cost modeling, and contract structures that balance risk between industry and government," a JPO spokesperson told BI.

"Performance contracts must align with warfighter needs, potentially requiring a mix of contracting strategies," the office said.

A Lockheed Martin spokesperson told BI that the company is committed to working with the JPO "on delivering mission-essential and effective sustainment support for the F-35 program now and in the future."

The spokesperson said pursuing a performance-based contracting strategy is a decision made by the Pentagon. "I would defer you to them for further comment. We support any model that can increase readiness and reduce cost for our customer," they said.

• Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II is one of the world's most advanced fighter jets.
• Business Insider toured a facility where the stealth jet is made.
• The production line in Fort Worth, Texas, is cranking out over 150 aircraft a year.

In a sprawling factory in Texas, thousands of people are working around the clock to assemble the US military's most advanced multi-role fighter jet: the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

The facility, operated by defense giant Lockheed Martin, stretches more than a mile and cranks out over 150 aircraft a year. It's enormous, with people riding golf carts or bikes to travel from one end to the other.

Business Insider recently toured the factory, officially called Air Force Plant 4. An overhead view of the production line, looking from right to left, reveals the tremendous scale of the operation. F-35s can be seen going from just the bare bones — chunks of metal largely unrecognizable to the untrained eye — to a jet that's nearly in its final form: a single-engine, supersonic stealth fighter jet made to dominate a range of combat operations.

The F-35 is the world's most expensive weapons program, with an expected lifetime cost of more than $2 trillion. Elon Musk and others have sharply criticized the aircraft amid rising program costs, sustainability challenges, and developmental setbacks. However, it is constantly being upgraded and is widely recognized as a top fifth-generation fighter.

Lockheed says that production of the jet contributes roughly $72 billion annually to the US economy through its network of suppliers and hundreds of thousands of workers spread across the country.

It takes about a year and a half to build a new F-35

Air Force Plant 4 has been making warplanes for decades. It began producing bomber aircraft during World War II before transitioning to the now-retired F-111 Aardvark in the 1960s. Several years later, it started building F-16s.

The first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter rolled off the factory floor in 2006, and since then, more than 1,110 of these fighter jets have been delivered to the US and its allies.

After significant delays, the F-35 program last year achieved full-rate production.

A single F-35 takes around 18 months to build, and this production facility can turn out 156 fighters annually from across all three variants — the A, B, and C variants are designed for conventional and ship-based take-off and landing. It is a 24-hour-a-day operation, with thousands of workers moving in and out of the plant on any given day, surrounded by heavy machinery.

Building the fighter jet starts with the assembly of its wing section. Constructing the airframe then moves down the production line to an area where the four major structure pieces of the jet — the tail section, wings, center fuselage, and forward fuselage — are brought together.

Maintaining a steady parts supply is a big challenge

This is where the aircraft really starts to take its highly recognizable shape. Small screens next to the aircraft show which country it's being made for: a stroll down the production line reveals the US, UK, Poland, Israel, and Japan, to name a few.

Parts for the F-35 — of which there are thousands — come from all over the world because the jet is a multinational project. One of the biggest challenges with building the fighter, BI learned, is ensuring that an adequate supply of parts is flowing to the Fort Worth production site.

When the fighters reach the end of the production line, they are ready to be painted their signature gray color. The paint, according to the company, is designed to reduce and absorb radar signals, which contributes to the aircraft's stealth profile.

The painting process happens in a separate building equipped with hangers that can close off during the coloring process. Some automation is involved in the construction of an F-35 jet, including when building its wing structure and during the painting stage.

Every aircraft is then flown several times as part of testing before it is ready to be sold.

The largest F-35 final assembly facility is in Fort Worth, but there is one smaller plant in Italy and another in Japan. These sites underline the global nature of the operation, as planes are shipped off to militaries in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

The F-35 has been used in combat since its first flight nearly 20 years ago. The US military has flown all three variants in strike missions against terror groups in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen. The jet also received significant praise after Israel used it to carry out widespread airstrikes in Iran last fall.

• Business Insider recently sat down with a test pilot for the F-35 stealth fighter jet.
• She explained what it was like to jump from flying the older F-16 to the fifth-generation aircraft.
• The biggest transition in the F-35 was the amount of information presented to the pilot.

A test pilot who made the jump from the now fifty-year-old F-16 to the new F-35 stealth fighter told Business Insider that it is a wildly different experience.

Think about the informational overload you would get from swapping out a decades-old pickup truck for a modern Tesla. There's a lot of extra information pilots get from the F-35, which is equipped with a suite of new technologies compared to legacy aircraft.

Monessa Balzhiser, call sign "Siren," is a pilot who has had the opportunity to move over to the new jet, working as an F-35 test pilot at Lockheed Martin's production facility in Forth Worth, Texas, following years flying the F-16 for the US Air Force.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon, a Lockheed Martin airframe originally manufactured by General Dynamics, is a single-engine, multi-role aircraft that took its first flight over 50 years ago. The fourth-generation fighter jet was developed for the US Air Force but is now in service with more than two dozen militaries around the world, including — as of last year — the Ukrainian armed forces.

The F-16 was revolutionary from an aircraft design philosophy perspective, with fly-by-wire controls for improved air-to-air combat capabilities. But in the age of stealth aircraft and higher-end surface-to-air threats, the F-16, even with the upgrades the fighter has gotten over the years to ensure it still packs a punch, is losing its once formidable edge.

The much-newer F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is a supersonic stealth aircraft that took its first flight nearly 20 years ago. The platform has evolved tremendously over the years.

The aircraft has faced criticism amid developmental setbacks, sustainability challenges, and rising costs (the expected lifetime cost of the program is now over $2 trillion), but the jet is constantly being upgraded and reworked for improved capability. Right now, no adversary capability compares, but new jets are coming out in rival nations. China, for instance, unveiled a number of new aircraft designs late last year, including what some suspect was a sixth-gen fighter prototype.

"The F-35 — we're continuing to develop it," Siren said.

"You're going to see threats — adversaries — evolving," so the priority is maintaining the advantage "to ensure we can come home safe," she added.

The F-35 is the second fifth-generation fighter jet operated by the US after the F-22 Raptor and comes in three variants flown by the Air Force, Marines, and Navy. Developed and produced as part of a multinational partnership, the jet is operated by many American allies, with more looking to do so in the future.

Siren flew the F-16 in the Air Force for 13 years, a tenure that included several combat tours. At Lockheed Martin, she works as the chief production pilot for the F-35.

Test pilots are the first people to actually fly the F-35 off the factory floor. The fighter will get airborne several times — the first two or three flights are with the company — before the US government goes through all its checks to make sure the jet is all good and ready to be sold.

For Siren, the biggest difference when she made the transition from the F-16 to the new F-35 was the sheer amount of information being presented to the pilot.

Siren said that in the F-16, "we had some of that information, but it was all shown on multiple different displays or formats."

In the past, the pilot had to calculate how to use certain tactics or interpret the presented battlespace in their heads, but the F-35 does all of that for the pilot, allowing them to focus their efforts more on the bigger mission picture. Another F-35 test pilot previously told BI that it can be difficult to get good at managing all the information, comparing the jet to a sophisticated video game.

Siren said the biggest surprise of the F-35 was its flight controls in low-speed scenarios. The fifth-generation fighter jet is equipped with a better sensor suite, situational awareness, and data fusion capabilities than the F-16. Those advanced capabilities allow it to perform as more than a fighter jet.

The advantage of the F-16 has always been in its speed and turn rate, she told BI. "However, all the flight controls and the computer that runs the flight controls on the F-35 allows me to intercept — on the same mission — a slow, low Cessna going 80 knots to a high, fast flyer going Mach 1.2," which is over 900 mph.

That helpful ability and "the high angle of attack that the F-35 can perform was what caught me off guard coming from the F-16," she said.

• A salvaged F-35 fighter made from two wrecked aircraft is set to return to the US Air Force's fleet.
• The restoration began in 2023. The jet took its maiden flight in January less than two years later.
• The "Franken-bird" cost about $6 million to repair, whereas a new F-35 costs over $80 million.

A one-of-a-kind F-35 stealth fighter built from two wrecked aircraft is set to make an unprecedented return to the US Air Force's operational fleet.

The so-called "Franken-bird" was restored through a collaboration between airmen from the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, the F-35A Lightning II Joint Program Office, and Lockheed Martin.

The F-35 JPO first assessed the feasibility of the restoration project in January 2020, and work on a pieced-together stealth fighter began in late 2023 at the Ogden Air Logistics Complex.

"All of the aircraft sections can be de-mated and re-mated theoretically, but it's just never been done before," Scott Taylor, Lockheed Martin's lead mechanical engineer on the project, said in a press release announcing the project in 2023. "This is the first F-35 'Frankin-bird' to date. This is history."

Less than two years later, the "Franken-bird" jet made its maiden flight on January 16. Following the successful functional check flight, the salvaged F-35 is set to undergo final tests and work before returning to combat status.

Scrap to salvage

In 2014, an F-35, tail number AF-27, was severely damaged at the Eglin Air Force Base in Florida after an engine fire burned the rear two-thirds of the aircraft. The cost of damage was estimated to be over $50 million, according to the Air Education and Training Command. The airframe was recycled as a damage and repair trainer for maintenance crews

In 2020, a landing gear malfunction caused an F-35, tail number AF-211, to crash, severely damaging its nose. The damaged airframe and its engine were preserved at Hill Air Force Base in Utah since the landing gear collapse.

Dave Myers, the lead engineer at the F-35 Joint Program Office Lightning Support Team, told Air & Space Forces Magazine that there was "no degradation" to the airframes, so splicing them together into the "Franken-bird" wouldn't impact its capabilities.

The first 'Franken-bird'

Hangared in the 4th Fighter Generation Squadron, maintainers created unique tools and equipment to support and join the nose section of the AF-27 and the rear section of the AF-211 since it was the first attempt at the ambitious repair job.

"When we received the aircraft, it was pretty much a shell," Senior Airman Jaguar Arnold, the aircraft's crew chief from the 4th FGS, said in a statement released last month. "There were a lot of tasks to complete that we hadn't done before at the unit level."

The repair process also incorporated some technical updates and new components, including reinforcement structures on its outer shell. Technicians reinstalled the landing gear, rewired the avionics systems, and rebuilt the cockpit.

"The F-35 program is still young compared to all legacy airframes," Myers said. "We are doing this for the first time, and organizationally for the future, we are creating a process we can move forward with."

A $6 million refurbished aircraft

The resounding success of the F-35 restoration efforts provided valuable technical experience for maintainers to improve installation and inspection processes.

"When we took responsibility for this project, we were taking on something unprecedented at the field level, and it wasn't easy," 1st Lt. Ryan Bare, Sortie Generation Flight commander for the 4th FGS, said. "That can't be overstated."

"But we were also taking on an opportunity for our maintainers to gain proficiency in this type of work and build experience at the unit level," Bare added. "As a program, and as a unit, we've benefited greatly from this."

The "Franken-bird" also had the added benefit of growing the Air Force's operational fleet — at a fraction of the cost. The aircraft restoration project cost an estimated $6 million, whereas a new F-35 jet costs over $80 million.

While the F-35 is the Defense Department's most advanced and costliest weapon system, Congress has questioned whether the stealth fighter's capabilities justify its steep price tag, especially as the program continues to be plagued by cost overruns, production delays, and maintenance and performance issues.

The DoD extended the F-35's projected operational life from 2077 to 2088, prompting the total estimated cost of the program to exceed $2 trillion. The US military operates about 630 F-35 variants with plans to procure over 1,800 more jets for the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy by the mid-2040s.

Return to the fleet

After the "Franken-bird" completed its functional check flights in January, the aircraft was transported to a Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas, where it will complete final certifications to restore its combat-ready status.

The section behind the jet's nose, which is only covered with anti-corrosion primer, will also be finished by applying low-observable materials.

The aircraft is set to return to combat status with the 4th Fighter Squadron around March, though it could be fully operational well before then, according to Dan Santos, the F-35 JPO heavy maintenance manager.

"Not only will this project return a combat asset back to the warfighter," Santos said in a 2023 statement, "but it opens the door for repairing future mishap aircraft using tooling, equipment, techniques, and knowledge that has been developed."

• The US Navy developed a $50 million stealth surface vessel that was never put into operational use.
• The Sea Shadow's angular surfaces inspired the design of the Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers.
• Its influence also lives on in a new catamaran vessel designed for near-shore operations.

The Cold War was a golden age for stealth technology as the US military heavily invested in advanced systems and capabilities to get the upper hand over the Soviet Union.

Driven by the Soviet Union's advancements in radar and missile systems, the US military moved beyond just reducing radar visibility to designing fully radar-evading aircraft like Lockheed Martin's F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational stealth fighter.

But the US Navy sought to get eyes in the water as well, attempting to create the first stealth vessel that was undetectable by radar and sonar. The Navy never found a use for the one-of-a-kind vessel, whose design was ahead of its time and informed the creation of the Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers.

Its influence also lives on in a new catamaran vessel designed for near-shore operations.

Stealth submarine to surface ship

Ben Rich, then the director of Lockheed's Skunk Works, decided to apply the F-117's stealthy coatings and angular shaping to a submarine.

Rich and his Skunk Works team — the industry leaders in stealth design — developed a small-scale model of a submarine dubbed the Sea Shadow to test in a sonic chamber. They found that the angular design of the cigar-shaped hull bounced sonar signals away from the vessel and muffled sounds it emitted from the crew and engine.

Trial and error

However, the Defense Department didn't find a need for underwater stealth craft, prompting Rich to adapt the design into a Small Water Area Twin Hull, a catamaran-style surface vessel designed to be stable and fast in rough seas whose futuristic design looked unlike anything else in the US fleet.

The Pentagon expressed interest in Rich's modified stealth surface vessel model, authorizing a $50 million contract through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to Skunk Works to "test the effects of stealth shaping and coatings on surface vessels and effects of seawater on radar absorbing iron ferrite coatings," according to Lockheed Martin.

Top secret development

The Soviet Union's network of reconnaissance satellites could expose the positions of the US Navy's surface fleet. Drawing inspiration from the Nighthawk, the Sea Shadow incorporated sharp angles and flat surfaces of 45-degree angles to reduce the ship's radar visibility and avoid detection.

The stealth concept was tested in a 100-by-80-foot plastic swimming pool in Death Valley, California, using a simulated Soviet radar satellite. The successful test earned the project more funding to develop a prototype of the Sea Shadow.

Developed under strict secrecy, the Sea Shadow was constructed modularly, building smaller sections of the ship before they were taken to a submergible barge in California to be fully assembled.

The 164-foot vessel could accommodate a four-man crew consisting of the commander, helmsman, navigator, and engineer. The diesel-electric propulsion system allowed the vessel to reach speeds of up to 15 knots, or about 17 miles per hour.

Failure to launch

The Sea Shadow prototype was designed to test the application of stealth technology at sea, exploring how its stealth capabilities would perform in real-world conditions.

But the stealth ship was a one-off prototype with limited capabilities, and its odd, unconventional design was highly specialized, making it less practical for general use. Without the flexibility or features of the other multi-role vessels in the Navy's fleet, the Sea Shadow never saw use.

After nearly three decades sitting in storage at a private shipyard in San Diego, the Navy offered the Sea Shadow to museums for free, but there were no takers. Instead, it was sold at a 95% loss in 2012 — the highest bid amounting to $2.5 million — and was dismantled and scrapped.

Lasting legacy

Even though the prototype itself didn't fit into the Navy's evolving needs, it did provide valuable insights into adapting stealth technology for the sea. The lessons learned from Sea Shadow contributed to more advanced stealth ships and systems, like the Zumwalt-class destroyers.

While the expensive Zumwalt class has long struggled to find a suitable mission and weapons, they featured similar stealth characteristics to the Sea Shadow, like low radar cross-sections and angular shapes, to achieve greater survivability and effectiveness in modern naval warfare.

General Dynamics GHOST vessel

The Sea Shadow's design also has similarities with a new vessel. Developed by General Dynamics, the GHOST is an uncrewed vessel designed for coastal defense, special operations, and anti-piracy patrols. It can raise or lower its wings for low visibility, high speed, or stability.

The 62-foot drone has a shallow four-foot draft for coastal operations, and its hybrid turbine-and-electric drive allows the vessel to reach speeds of up to 32.5 knots, or about 37 mph. A General Dynamics brochure said it has two "stealth" modes.

Not only can the GHOST be modified physically to fit the mission at hand — like carrying missiles or ferrying 16 Navy SEALs — but it can also be operated by a pilot and navigator onboard, controlled remotely, or programmed as an autonomous platform.

• I had the rare opportunity to fly in a historic jet trainer ahead of the Pacific Airshow in October.
• The T-33 Shooting Star was used to train US Air Force pilots on jet aircraft until the early 1960s.
• The flight was an unforgettable glimpse into aviation history as modern fighters rule the skies.

Strapped in the rear seat of the T-33's cockpit, I triple-checked the buckles and straps securing me. The clear bubble canopy sealed shut with a click, shutting out the aircraft's engine roar.

As someone who has solely flown on commercial airliners and once on a puddle jumper in Alaska, I didn't know what to expect until the jet's mounting speed on the runway pressed me back into my seat. The rush of adrenaline pulled my focus away from the sensation of the wheels leaving the ground as the world below transformed into a patchwork of shrinking buildings and roads.

As the sunset painted wispy clouds in a red-orange glow, I felt transported back to the Jet Age's earliest days, when competency at this aircraft's stick and analog controls was a make-or-break for US Air Force trainees.

Developed by Lockheed Corporation, the T-33 Shooting Star was a subsonic jet trainer designed to transition Air Force pilots from propeller-driven aircraft to the emerging era of jet propulsion in the late 1940s.

But the hourlong flight in the run-up to the Pacific Airshow in Huntington Beach, California, taught me to appreciate the iconic aircraft that paved the way for the cutting-edge jets that dominate today's skies.

America's first jet trainer

The US was among several countries around the world ushering in a new era of fighter aircraft toward the end of World War II.

The T-33 Shooting Star was instrumental in transitioning early military aviators — then already qualified to fly propeller-driven aircraft — to fighter jets. The jet trainer was a direct offshoot of the single-seat P-80 Shooting Star, one of the first operational jet fighters flown by the US Air Force, adding another seat to the cockpit to accommodate both student and instructor.

Equipped with a turbojet engine, the T-33 could reach speeds of up to 600 mph and altitudes of up to 45,000 feet. Just shy of 40 feet long, the jet trainer had a large clear bubble canopy, providing ample visibility to the pilots in the two-seat cockpit decked out with various flight indicators and engine gauges.

Lockheed manufactured over 5,000 so-called "T-Birds" between 1948 and 1959, used by air forces around the world until the fleet was slowly phased out starting in the 1980s. The US Air Force retired its last T-33, a variant modified for aerodynamic research, in 1997, ending the storied aircraft's five-decade tenure with the service.

While the T-Bird no longer trains military pilots, the aircraft's legacy has been preserved in aerial museums and heritage flights.

Seasoned airshow pilot

I flew with Greg "Wired" Colyer, a longtime performer at the Pacific Airshow. Colyer founded Ace Maker Aviation, operating three T-33 aircraft for aerial demonstrations like airshows.

A US Army veteran and aviation enthusiast, Colyer completed his fixed-wing training while studying at the US Navy's Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

He told Business Insider he wanted to fly military helicopters until a knee injury prompted him to instead work as an air traffic controller for the Federal Aviation Administration for nearly three decades.

In 2008, Colyer restored his first T-Bird, aptly naming the historic jet trainer the "Ace Maker," teaching himself aerobatic maneuvers for airshows across the US. Aside from airshows, the California native also works as a test pilot instructor for the US Navy and Air Force.

Over the next decade, he added two more T-33s, the Ace Maker II and Ace Maker III, the latter of which I flew in.

"It was just one of my favorite planes as a kid," Colyer said. "It was our very first jet trainer and just an iconic piece of US history."

During the Pacific Airshow, Colyer put the T-33's capabilities on full display, dazzling spectators below with his self-taught aerobatic maneuvers.

The airshow also featured performances from the F-22 Raptor, a fifth-generation stealth jet considered to be the top US air superiority fighter. The Thunderbirds, the Air Force's aerial demonstration squadron, also wowed crowds at the airshow, flying in tight formations at near-supersonic speeds in F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft.

Inside the cockpit

After haphazardly climbing atop the T-33's wing, I peered into the cockpit and was immediately intimidated by the crowded display of gauges and controls.

As a Cold War-era aircraft, the T-33 didn't feature the digital displays or avionics that are routine on more advanced fighter jets. The T-Bird had primarily analog controls, leaving the pilot responsible for manually controlling the plane's speed, altitude, and flight path.

Colyer walked me through a crash course of the T-33's rear instrument panels — the airspeed indicator, altimeter, turn coordinator, heading indicator, radio controls, and various fuel and engine gauges monitoring temperature, pressure, and fuel state.

As a tandem trainer, the backseat also had a yoke and rudder pedals, allowing student pilots to practice controls and maneuvers. I was explicitly instructed not to mess with either.

Though rudimentary to an experienced pilot, I could see how it would benefit early military aviators to develop essential skills for operating the advanced jet aircraft of the time.

As a journalist, however, the mechanics of the aircraft were lost on me, but I paid close attention to two controls in the cockpit:

1. The switch that muted my transceiver so I wouldn't distract the pilot.
2. The lever that operated the plane's rocket-powered emergency ejection seat — for obvious reasons.

Preparing for takeoff

As Colyer strapped into the pilot seat, I settled in the seat behind him, my head barely peeking over the edge of the cockpit.

I adjusted my flight helmet and oxygen mask, snapping a few shameless selfies to show off in group chats with my friends and family after the flight.

Colyer's voice crackled in my headset as he communicated with the control tower. In an instant, the plane's engine roared to life as the plane taxied the airfield in Orange County.

A thrilling takeoff

With one final check-in, I signaled my OK with a meager thumbs-up to the pilot before we sped down the runway and into the air.

The acceleration pinned me against the seat, and I peered at the blurring silhouettes of buildings and aircraft surrounding us, slowly shrinking as we gained altitude.

Panoramic views

I had to stifle my gasp — lest I distract Colyer while he operated the aircraft — as we were soon graced with an unobstructed view of the skies through the glass canopy.

Experiencing the T-33 in action

While Colyer spared me from the thrills — and terrors — of complex airshow maneuvers, I was still acutely aware of the G-forces pressing down on me with every sharp movement of the aircraft.

A slight nudge of the yoke sent us banking into a turn, the horizon tilting dramatically. I was repeatedly startled by urgent beeping from the control panel, only to be reassured by Colyer that it was because the plane was idling to maintain slower speeds.

He said the T-33 was only going around 250 mph — a fraction of what the jet trainer was capable of and nearly half the speed he normally goes during airshow performances.

Trainers flying in tandem

We were accompanied by a former US Navy Texan T-6 during the flight demonstration. A fellow trainer aircraft, the T-6 is a two-seat jet trainer produced by Raytheon Aircraft in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The T-6 was primarily used to train students in basic flying skills through the Air Force and Navy's entry-level training program known as the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System.

T-33 touchdown

Time seemed to pass more slowly as we flew for about an hour, constrained by the fuel capacity of the T-33, which burns about 300 gallons per hour.

Descending back toward the runway, the adrenaline began to ebb before Colyer informed me that he would partially pop open the canopy to create additional drag upon landing. Lowering the visor on my flight helmet, I braced myself against rushing winds as the T-33 touched down with a thud and rolled to a halt on the tarmac.

The sky is the limit

After sharing the cockpit selfies and views with friends and family, I fielded a number of questions about the flight and whether I got to deploy any onboard weapons (trainer aircraft are not armed). It was a chance to reflect on the unforgettable experience.

In short, we flew in circles over Orange County, cruising at speeds slower than commercial passenger planes. I then spent the rest of the time ahead of the Pacific Airshow talking with demo pilots who operated more advanced frontline fighters.

But the experience was more than just a golden-hour flight in a vintage military jet trainer. The intense rumble of the turbojet engine, the array of analog gauges and controls, and sweeping views through the canopy offered a glimpse into what it must have felt like for early military aviators mastering jet-powered flight for the first time.

While I'm still holding out on future familiarization flight rides on modern fighter jets, my flight on the T-Bird will serve as a constant reminder of just how far US military aviation has come.

• Elon Musk sharply criticized the F-35 stealth jet and its builder, Lockheed Martin.
• Musk could target the expensive program as part of his efforts to cut federal spending under Trump.
• Congress has historically valued the stealth fighter flown by three military branches despite its problems.

Just weeks after President-elect Donald Trump tasked Elon Musk with cutting government spending, the SpaceX CEO criticized the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program: the F-35.

Musk called the jet's design "shit" and derided the "idiots" making the fifth-generation stealth fighter, which is widely considered a cornerstone of US airpower. His comments suggest he could be eyeing the $2 trillion F-35 program, and possibly other fighter jets, for potential spending cuts.

To do so would be an uphill battle. He would likely need to first convince Trump, who has for years repeatedly celebrated the F-35 for its high-end stealth capabilities. Then he would need to gain support within the Pentagon and Congress, which controls its funding.

DOGE could target defense spending and the extremely expensive F-35

Trump has tapped Musk to head the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, charged with targeting government waste. Defense spending is a big potential target for the initiative.

It is the largest discretionary spending category in the federal budget, with the Pentagon's fiscal year 2024 budget of $824.3 billion. And the Department of Defense recently failed its seventh audit in a row.

The F-35 has had many problems. It suffered setbacks in development, and it continues to face cost overruns and readiness issues, with availability declining even as the program costs rise. Earlier this year, a government watchdog report found that the program will cost over $2 trillion over its lifetime.

In posts on X this week, Musk sharply criticized both the stealth fighter jet and, indirectly, its manufacturer: US defense giant Lockheed Martin. He said drones can now replicate the effect of crewed aircraft on the battlefield.

He also wrote that the F-35 fighter's design "was broken at the requirements level because it was required to be too many things to too many people. This made it an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes."

Some defense analysts say the combat-proven aircraft is still a vital capability in America's arsenal — one that can't just be replaced by drones.

The multirole fighter jet is flown by the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, with three different versions for operating off traditional runways, big-deck amphibious assault ships, and aircraft carriers. It was designed to execute air combat, ground attack, and other missions. The plane first took flight nearly 20 years ago and is expected to serve until 2088.

In response to Musk's comments, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson said the F-35 is "the most advanced, survivable, and connected fighter aircraft in the world, a vital deterrent and the cornerstone of joint all-domain operations." They added that Lockheed looks forward "to a strong working relationship with President Trump, his team, and also with the new Congress to strengthen our national defense."

A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on Musk's criticisms of the F-35 when asked about them at a Tuesday media briefing.

Any proposed cuts to the F-35 program could face opposition in Congress from lawmakers who have historically supported it for the spending it brings to many districts in the form of factory jobs. In fact, the House's defense spending bill for the 2025 fiscal year called for more F-35s than what the Pentagon initially requested.

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for information on whether it plans to reduce or end the F-35 program.

How Musk could save money on the F-35 program

Michael Bohnert, a licensed engineer at the RAND Corporation, told BI the F-35 fighter is "cost-competitive" with global alternatives.

Bohnert said taking away the pilot wouldn't really change costs, and it would require multiple drones to begin to recreate the capabilities of an F-35. The ultimate costs of those platforms could end up being more expensive and, ultimately, still less capable.

A better way to save money, he said, would be to improve the cost efficiency of munitions and automate maintenance.

"Augmenting F-35s with unmanned systems would be valuable, but unmanned systems are no replacement," he said. Canceling the fighter altogether "would be one of the biggest gifts imaginable for America's enemies," he said.

Stacy Pettyjohn, director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security, told BI that the US can't replace crewed aircraft with drones in the near term anyway. The technology isn't advanced enough yet.

She said that the Pentagon has not yet fielded fully lethal autonomous weapons "that are sophisticated and can make sense of their environments, decide what to do, and act fully on their own."

"Almost all of the drones that exist today are remotely piloted or at most semi-autonomous," she said. "Developing the autonomy responsibly and then deciding that we have trust in it to send it on extremely consequential missions that is the long pole in the tent."

• Elon Musk criticized the F-35 program on Sunday.
• Musk's comments come as he prepares to advise Trump on government efficiency in 2025.
• The GAO expects the F-35 program to cost about $2 trillion over its entire lifespan.

Elon Musk, who's set to start advising President-elect Donald Trump on government efficiency in 2025, criticized the Pentagon's F-35 program in two social media posts on Sunday.

The billionaire reposted a video montage of coordinated drone swarms on X, writing: "Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35."

He added a "trash can" emoji to his post.

When another X user defended the F-35's capabilities, Musk responded that the prized jet is a "shit design."

In another post, Musk said: "Crewed fighter jets are an inefficient way to extend the range of missiles or drop bombs. A reusable drone can do so without all the overhead of a human pilot."

"'Stealth' means nothing", he added, saying that it's "laughably easy" to shoot down fighter jets.

Musk has made similar arguments several times over the years.

Mauro Gilli, a senior researcher in military technology at the Center for Security Studies of the Swiss university ETH Zurich, told BI that Musk was echoing valid criticisms of the F-35 program.

But, he said, there were many problems with Musk's line of thinking.

Gilli acknowledged that the F-35 program has had well-documented cost and time overruns. But those problems are not primarily down to them being crewed aircraft, he told BI.

"The primary source of costs and problems was the electronics and, in particular, the software," he said.

And that would only get more expensive with a drone equivalent, he added.

"A drone operating within enemy airspace will not be remotely controlled," Gilli said. "It will need to have a very high level of autonomy."

This requires even more costly and complex electronics and software than even a piloted aircraft, he suggested.

According to Gilli, Musk's suggestion is to rely on something that has "so far been the primary source of cost and time delays. And so there is no reason to believe that these drones would be any cheaper."

Musk's emphasis on a "reusable" drone also means it would need all the same stealth capabilities as an F-35 in penetrating enemy airspace and evading air defenses, Gilli said, making his comments about stealth a moot point.

A target for DOGE?

It's unclear if Musk intends to use his new position to impact any plans or costs for the F-35, the Pentagon's most expensive fighter program to date.

But he mentioned Defense Department spending in a column in The Wall Street Journal that criticized federal government budgets.

"The Pentagon recently failed its seventh consecutive audit, suggesting that the agency's leadership has little idea how its annual budget of more than $800 billion is spent," Musk wrote in the column with Vivek Ramaswamy, who is to lead Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency with him.

Musk and Ramaswamy wrote that the intention of their department is to eliminate the "sheer magnitude of waste, fraud, and abuse that nearly all taxpayers wish to end."

As for the F-35, costs for the Lockheed Martin-developed stealth jet have hit about $485 billion, after a 10% bump this year due to what the Pentagon said was a need to improve its engine cooling.

Around 1,000 of the planes have been delivered to the US military and its allies, out of a total of over 3,000 aircraft planned for production over the F-35 program's lifetime.

The jet's operational lifespan is estimated to last until 2088, and the Government Accountability Office thus expects the F-35 program to cost over $2 trillion to produce and sustain.

Musk did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, but he's said before that the US should consider remote-piloted alternatives to manned jets, both to keep up with the rise in drone warfare and also to help Air Force procurement stay competitive.

In response to Musk's tweets, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson told BI that the F-35 is "the most advanced, survivable and connected fighter aircraft in the world, a vital deterrent and the cornerstone of joint all-domain operations."

"As we did in his first term, we look forward to a strong working relationship with President Trump, his team, and also with the new Congress to strengthen our national defense," they added.

Meanwhile, a Pentagon spokesperson told BI: "We have combat capable aircraft in operation today and they perform exceptionally well against the threat for which they were designed."

The spokesperson added: "Pilots continually emphasize that this is the fighter they want to take to war if called upon."