Latest news with #F-35JointStrikeFighters
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Pentagon 'All In' On Air Force's F-47, Puts Navy's F/A-XX On Ice
The Pentagon's proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget fully commits to the U.S. Air Force's F-47 sixth-generation stealth fighter, while effectively shelving the U.S. Navy's plans for a next-generation carrier-based F/A-XX combat jet. U.S. officials say a key driver behind this decision is a fear that America's industrial base cannot develop and produce two different advanced stealth fighters simultaneously. In addition, previously planned purchases of stealth F-35 Joint Strike Fighters are set to be slashed by more than half as part of a shift in resources to key upgrades for those aircraft and sustaining existing fleets. Earlier today, senior U.S. officials briefed TWZ and other outlets on the Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal, the release of which has occurred with little fanfare after being significantly delayed, a significant departure from previous years. 'F-47, the first crewed sixth-generation fighter, is moving forward with $3.5 billion in funding following President Trump's March 2025 decision to proceed with Boeing's development,' a senior U.S. military official said. 'The Navy's FA-XX program will maintain minimal development funding to preserve the ability to leverage F-47 work while preventing over-subscription of qualified defense industrial base engineers.' Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth first publicly disclosed the $3.5 billion figure at a Congressional hearing earlier this month. 'We are maintaining a request of $74 million for the F/A-XX program in this budget to complete the design of that aircraft. We did make a strategic decision to go all in on F-47,' a senior U.S. defense official added. This is 'due to our belief that the industrial base can only handle going fast on one program at this time, and the presidential priority to go all in on F-47, and get that program right.' Funding the completion of the design work on the Navy's program will allow for 'maintaining the option for F/A-XX in the future,' the senior U.S. defense official continued. Earlier this month, Boeing Defense and Space CEO Steve Parker very publicly pushed back on the idea that the U.S. industrial base was not capable of working on the F-47 and F/A-XX at the same time. Northrop Grumman has also been in the running for F/A-XX, something the company pressed ahead with after dropping out of the Air Force's NGAD combat jet competition in 2023. Lockheed Martin was reportedly eliminated from the Navy's next-generation fighter competition in March. Regardless, the F/A-XX program has been very clearly in limbo for months now. In March, reports indicated that a contract announcement for the Navy's next-generation fighter would follow quickly from the F-47 news, but that never materialized. A report earlier this month from Bloomberg News, based on budget documents the outlet had seen, had said that the Pentagon was instead moving to redirect $500 million in funding from F/A-XX to F-47, and called attention to the industrial base concerns. 'At this time, I would say pretty much everything is under consideration to get the TACAIR [tactical aviation] capability that our warfighters need as quickly as possible,' the senior U.S. defense official added in response to a question about whether a navalized variant of the F-47 might now be on the table. 'That's really what we're looking at the most, is the schedule of all these programs.' Though the F-47 and the F/A-XX have long been expected, in very broad terms, to share some mission sets, including acting as an aerial 'quarterback' for drones, fundamental requirements for a land-based fighter differ significantly from those of a carrier-based design. The F-35 offers a prime example of this reality in that, despite their outward appearance, there is only approximately 20 percent parts commonality between the land and carrier-based variants, as well as the short takeoff and vertical landing-capable version. Aviation Week reported last year that the Navy was forging ahead with F/A-XX as a distinctly independent effort from the Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) combat jet program, which resulted in the F-47. As noted, the Pentagon's latest budget proposal for the 2026 Fiscal Year also includes cuts to planned purchases of F-35s. 'F-35 procurement is reduced from 74 to 47 aircraft,' according to the senior U.S. military official, who did not offer a breakdown by variant. Previous reports have said that it is F-35As for the Air Force that are getting slashed. Doing this will allow for 'maintaining minimum production rates, with increased funding for Block 4 modernization and significant investment in spares of about a billion dollars to address sustainment and readiness challenges.' The Block 4 upgrade package promises major improvements for all variants of the F-35, including a new radar, improved electronic warfare capabilities, and an expanded arsenal, but has suffered significant delays and cost growth. Joint Strike Fighters also need an additional set of hardware and software updates, called Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3), to even be able to accept the planned Block 4 upgrades, work on which also encountered significant difficulties. The U.S. military went so far as to stop accepting deliveries of new F-35s for roughly a year due to issues with TR-3. Starting in May, executives from Lockheed Martin have been publicly saying that their position is that the development of TR-3 is now complete, though the U.S. military had yet to formally sign off on that as of earlier this month. Spare parts shortages, coupled with other maintenance and supply chain problems, have been longstanding issues for the F-35 program. These problems, collectively, have been a major contributor to low readiness rates for all U.S. F-35 fleets for years now, something TWZ has explored in great detail in this past feature. The Fiscal Year 2026 budget request does include $3 billion in funding for more F-15EX Eagle II fighters for the Air Force, which would increase the planned fleet size of those aircraft from 98 to 129. That service is also asking for $870 million to continue moving ahead on its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drone program, which would support continued work on the initial General Atomics YFQ-42A and Anduril YFQ-44A designs, as well as the ongoing refinement of concepts of operations. When it comes to any annual budget request from the Pentagon, it is also important to note that Congress still has to approve the proposal and fund it. Legislators regularly make changes to defense spending plans, including when it comes to major weapon system programs. F/A-XX funding has notably been under threat from Congress in the past. Many lawmakers have been raising concerns about dwindling U.S. combat jet inventories across the services, in general, for years now. Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, asked Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Allvin at a hearing in May about whether he would be interested in receiving additional upgraded F-16s to bolster his force. The Air Force's top officer told Cotton he would get back to him about whether that was an 'advisable situation.' Lockheed Martin has also started pitching a concept for a 'Ferrari' or 'NASCAR upgrade' to the F-35's core 'chassis,' together with a huge and as-yet unproven claim that it could offer 80 percent of the capability of a sixth-generation design at 50 percent of the cost. TWZ has noted in the past that any work toward that end could help provide a hedge against delays with the F-47 and/or F/A-XX. The Pentagon does continues to insist that it has not completely abandoned the idea of next-generation carrier-based combat jets for the Navy, despite its stated focus on the F-47 at present. 'The department is dedicated to sixth-generation capability. So that's where we're going,' the senior U.S. military official said during the briefing today. 'How that's that's achieved right now, the F-47 is on path to be the leading agent of that, but sixth-gen is where we want to go.' For the moment at least, the F-47, and by extension Boeing, has emerged as the big next-generation tactical aviation winner in the Pentagon's latest proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Contact the author: joe@
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What We Just Learned A More Advanced 'Ferrari' F-35 Could Include
Pilot-optional F-35 Joint Strike Fighters could be coming in the future as Lockheed Martin looks for ways to ensure the jets remain relevant for decades to come. Technology from the company's unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) sixth-generation fighter competition, along with new coatings and other modifications, could also go into what it has previously called a 'Ferrari' or 'NASCAR upgrade' to the F-35's core 'chassis.' The feasibility of this proposal, as well as the huge claim that it could produce a jet with 80 percent of the capability of a sixth-generation design at 50 percent of the cost, remains very much in question. In the meantime, Lockheed Martin says overall demand for the F-35 remains strong and that new customers, potentially including Saudi Arabia and India, could be on the horizon. Speaking at Bernstein's Strategic Decisions Conference yesterday, Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet said he thinks that, in the space of two to three years, 'we could have a meaningful increase in capability for the F-35' by porting some of the NGAD technologies over. In March, the Air Force announced that Boeing had won the NGAD combat jet competition with a design now designated the F-47. The two-to-three-year timeline relates to 'first flight and integration,' Taiclet added, noting that any upgrades would have to be phased into production gradually 'because you cannot introduce too much new equipment or too much new software at once, necessarily without interrupting the production flow.' As for the kinds of technologies being considered, Taiclet specifically mentioned new infrared and radar coatings applied on the surface of the aircraft. The implication here is that sixth-generation stealth coatings developed under the NGAD program could be applied to the existing F-35 airframe for an improvement in its low-observable qualities, and likely also its maintainability. The U.S. military has also been observed conducting secretive tests of new mirror-like coatings on F-35s, as well as F-22 Raptor and F-117 Nighthawk stealth jets, in recent years. Taiclet also raised the possibility of more invasive design changes that would address parts of the F-35's core structure. 'There have been some adjustments or learnings, I'll say, on outer mold line, which is the actual shape of the aircraft itself, especially with regard to engine inlets and outflow nozzles that we might be able to again improve on the F-35 without redesigning it,' the Lockheed Martin CEO explained. Engine intakes and exhausts are some of the most sensitive areas for low-observable (stealthy) aircraft. The F-35's rear aspect radar signature is a known weak spot of the design, and improvements here would clearly be welcome, especially as enemy air defenses become more potent. 'There's also electronic warfare improvements, networking improvements, and autonomy,' Taiclet added. Of these, autonomy is judged as being 'really critical' and would be the factor that could make the F-35 pilot optional. Since a lot of the work on autonomy has already been done, Taiclet thinks that a pilot-optional version of the F-35 could become a reality 'over a relatively modest timeframe.' Lockheed Martin's chief executive did not elaborate on what might be required, technically, to add pilot-optional capability to the F-35, but it does seem readily feasible given the aircraft's digitized, open architecture avionics and communications suite. At the same time, the benefits that a pilot-optional F-35 might offer would seem to be of debatable value. The F-35 is also already set to get major electronic warfare enhancements and more as part of the forthcoming Block 4 upgrade package, which we will come back to later on. Finally, in terms of bringing NGAD technologies into the F-35, Taiclet mentioned the possibility of introducing unspecified weapons that have been developed, or which are in development, for the sixth-generation fighter. With some or all of these new technologies, Lockheed Martin sees the opportunity to transform the F-35 into what Taiclet described as 'a more capable fifth-gen-plus version' of the Joint Strike Fighter. The idea of a reworked F-35 is something that Taiclet had raised back in April, soon after Boeing was selected as the winner of the NGAD crewed fighter competition, with its F-47. At the time, he had discussed a 'Ferrari' or 'NASCAR upgrade' for the F-35, but did not provide concrete details of what that might entail. He did, however, note a goal of offering 80-percent of the capability of the NGAD crewed fighter capability at just half the cost. Yesterday, Taiclet reiterated the 80 percent/50 percent target, which remains highly ambitious. 'That's a set of targets that we're going after as a company,' he said. 'We're recommending consideration of some of those ideas to the U.S. government right now.' Absent from Taiclet's conversation yesterday was the so-called F-55, a purported development of the F-35 that U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned while talking to the press earlier this month. Trump described the F-55 as a twin-engined F-35 and also discussed an 'F-22 Super' that would be an upgraded version of the Raptor. At yesterday's Strategic Decisions Conference, Lockheed Martin's Taiclet did say that a similarly ambitious upgrade effort to the one described for the F-35 could be applied to the F-22. The F-22 fleet is already set to receive a number of important upgrades in the coming years, including a new Infrared Defensive System (IRDS), additional sensor improvements, and stealthy drop tanks. Work to modernize the Raptors had already been feeding into the NGAD program. It's also worth noting that President Trump had raised the prospect of an F-55 while on a trip to the Persian Gulf region, raising the question about whether it might have been tied to interest from the countries in the region. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabian officials had again met with their American counterparts about the possibility of purchasing F-35s. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar have reportedly sought to buy Joint Strike Fighters in the past, as well. Concerns about the erosion of Israel's so-called 'qualitative military edge' and operational security issues are reported to have hampered progress on such sales in the past. The Israeli Air Force is currently the only F-35 operator in the Middle East. It's also interesting to note here that Qatar and Saudi Arabia both played significant roles in Boeing's development of versions of the Advanced Eagle, which the U.S. Air Force is now benefiting from with its F-15EX Eagle II. Now, 'in air superiority, there's a discussion about a path to fifth generation in Saudi Arabia,' Taiclet said yesterday. 'There'll be multiple steps in that. It could take some time, but I think if we can work with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE on really bolstering their air superiority capabilities and their integrated air and defense capabilities … there will be really significant opportunity for the company along those lines, and a few others too.' It's not entirely clear from Taiclet's remarks here if he means there might also be a pathway emerging for potential 'fifth-generation' fighter sales to Qatar and the UAE, as well as Saudi Arabia. New 'air superiority capabilities and their integrated air and defense capabilities' could include sales of advanced F-16s, which are already heading to the region for the Royal Bahraini Air Force, as well as ground-based air and missile defense systems that Lockheed Martin produces. Lockheed Martin has already found significant export opportunities in the Middle East for its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) ballistic missile defense system and the PAC-3 series of interceptors for the Patriot surface-to-air missile system. Taiclet also talked about the potential for F-35 sales to India and re-raised the possibility of selling that country a particularly advanced F-16 derivative called the F-21. Though hard details remain elusive, the Indian Air Force looks to have lost at least some number of fourth-generation fighters in the course of a brief, but intense conflict with Pakistan earlier this month that also put the spotlight on Chinese fighter exports. 'I think the F-16 also has strong legs, if you will, and more [and] increasing interest as we go forward from a number of countries that aren't quite ready for F-35,' Taiclet said. There are 'some countries that could see F-21 or F-16, for India, for example, as a stepping stone to F-35.' 'We've already started with the wing section. So, F-16 wings are co-produced in India for export to other nations,' the Lockheed Martin CEO added. 'We've made commitments to literally the highest level of the Indian government, that should they choose F-21, which is the modernized version of the F-16, that we would initiate production as feasible in India for final assembly of the aircraft, as well as the wings.' Circling back to the F-35, in general, Taiclet also talked yesterday about the ongoing issues with that program. Work on the aforementioned Block 4 package, and the Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3) improvements that the jets have to receive first, continues to face delays. Taiclet blamed issues tied to an upgrade to the Distributed Aperture System (DAS), which is one part of Block 4, as being a major factor. You can read more about the existing DAS, and the threat warning and general situational awareness capabilities it offers, here. 'TR-3 is a technology refreshment, a technology upgrade, from the prior F-35 core processor, which is basically the onboard server computer; a data storage unit, which is much more robust and can hold and process a lot more information; and then a pilot display generator that is the next generation, is more sophisticated, more capable,' Taiclet explained. Then there is 'a software package, or firmware package, really, that integrates the core processor server, the data storage unit and the display, display generator, into the aircraft itself.' 'The hardware is complete. It's being produced at scale at L3Harris. The software integration with the aircraft is also complete, and so TR-3 has met its completion milestones. What's going on now is that aircraft are being run through the factory with TR-3, plus the first hardware component, or one of the initial hardware components, of the Block 4 upgrade to the aircraft hardware,' he continued. 'That piece of equipment is called a Distributed Aperture System, which is six apertures or antennas located around the aircraft that provide lots of sensing capabilities.' 'The holdup now is that the sensor set — a new piece of hardware and its own software and its own firmware — has to now integrate with the TR-3 aircraft, and that is a little bit behind schedule,' he added. 'Once that catches up, we think by the end of this year, then all those aircraft that have been delivered will be combat-capable.' The ongoing struggles with Block 4 and TR-3 do raise further questions about the fifth-generation-plus F-35 proposal, which involves relatively drastic changes to the aircraft beyond what is being worked on now, as well as the 80 percent/50 percent claim. There are also ongoing supply chain and other sustainment problems that present serious cost growth concerns for current and future operators, something TWZ has explored in detail in the past. 'Our first priority is the health of the F-35 program. What we suggested is longer-term production and sustainment agreements … where we could stabilize the supply chain, get some costs down, and make sure that we can deliver on time and on schedule more reliably,' according to Taiclet. It remains to be seen whether a fifth-generation-plus variant or derivative of the F-35 ultimately materializes. At the same time, Lockheed Martin at least working toward that end could provide the U.S. military a hedge against delays or other issues in the continued development of the F-47. The future outlook for the U.S. Navy's F/A-XX next-generation stealth fighter is currently murky, as well. The F-35 presents is an in-production design that can be leveraged, potentially even just in name. As a comparative example, the Navy first fielded the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, a significantly different aircraft from preceding F/A-18 Hornet variants, after the cancellation of far more advanced, expensive, and entirely new designs. Regardless, Lockheed Martin looks committed to seeing how far it can push the bounds of the design, including possibly removing the pilot from the equation, as it pursues new export opportunities. Contact the author: thomas@
Japan Times
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
U.S. allies get a Signal chat's worth of red flags
If Europeans didn't already know what the new administration in Washington thinks and wants of them, they now do: "PATHETIC' and cash, respectively. This is thanks to the hard-to-credit decision of U.S. President Donald Trump's top security officials to chat about an imminent military strike against targets in Yemen on a publicly available texting app — and to include a journalist by mistake. For a continent already worried that Trump may not honor any NATO Article 5 request or would be willing to shake down allies by withholding the spare parts and software upgrades needed to keep their F-35 Joint Strike Fighters flying, the content of this unintentionally leaked discussion has provided confirmation. In the short term, that may have few real consequences. Although insulting, the administration's assessment of Europe's weak military capabilities is correct. The resulting dependency on U.S. military might has made European states highly vulnerable to extortion by their now-former ally. Longer term, though, the drive to move away from buying U.S. arms and build European will be overwhelming. Charles de Gaulle, the postwar French president who in 1966 pulled France out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's integrated command structures to avoid just such dependencies, has been vindicated from his grave.
Bloomberg
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Signal Chat Leak of Military Plans Makes the US Look Reckless
If Europeans didn't already know what the new administration in Washington thinks and wants of them, they now do: 'PATHETIC' and cash, respectively. This is thanks to the hard-to-credit decision of President Donald Trump's top security officials to chat about an imminent military strike against targets in Yemen on a publicly available texting app, and to include a journalist by mistake. For a continent already worried that Trump may not honor any NATO Article 5 request or would be willing to shake down allies by withholding the spare parts and software upgrades needed to keep their F-35 Joint Strike Fighters flying, the content of this unintentionally leaked discussion has provided confirmation. In the short term, that may have few real consequences. Although insulting, the administration's assessment of Europe's weak military capabilities is correct. The resulting dependency on US military might has made European states highly vulnerable to extortion by their now-former ally. Longer term, though, the drive to move away from buying US arms and build European will be overwhelming. Charles de Gaulle, the postwar French president who in 1966 pulled France out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's integrated command structures to avoid just such dependencies, has been vindicated from his grave. US allies in the Asia Pacific and Middle East can only conclude that this might soon be them, too, should Trump and his officials ever decide that they aren't paying enough for their defense or making sufficient trade concessions. Russia and China, meanwhile, will also draw conclusions, though viewed from their perspective this offers exploitable opportunities. At least as important as all this is that America's friends and foes alike are finding out what happens when you get group of poorly qualified ideologues to run the most powerful military in the world. The short answer is either recklessness or, under a more generous interpretation, a group with a steep learning curve. John Ratcliffe, director of the Central Intelligence Service, was on the call. He never thought, however, to question the exposure to potential foreign espionage in discussing the most highly classified subject possible — an imminent military operation — on personal cell phones open to loss or hacking, and while using Signal, a public, albeit encrypted, messaging service. It's because of those vulnerabilities that the US government has a dedicated secure communications system. It's less convenient than a phone chat, but that's because it's safe. Ratcliffe, a Texas lawyer, had no intelligence qualifications for the job when he was appointed, either this year or for a brief stint as director of national intelligence in Trump's first term. It shows. Mike Waltz, the national security adviser now heavily involved in negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, set up the Signal chat and included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic magazine, by error. Waltz has an impressive military background as a former special forces officer, and he served as a policymaker in the George W. Bush administration. Yet this isn't a mistake you could imagine Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft or Zbigniew Brzezinski making.
