The F-35 could be ‘pilot optional’ in the not-too-distant future, Lockheed Martin CEO says

Lockheed Martin is developing an advanced version of its F-35 stealth fighter jet that could potentially be uncrewed, the company’s CEO said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Bernstein’s 41st Annual Strategic Decisions Conference, CEO Jim Taiclet floated the possibility of an F-35 whose pilot could be “optional” within a “relatively modest time frame.”

He outlined what he called “fifth-gen-plus” aircraft, where within two or three years both the F-35 and the older F-22 Raptor would feature several capabilities, including stealth coatings, electronic warfare improvements, and an unspecified weapons improvement, he said.

Lockheed is repurposing much of this tech from its failed bid for the F-22 Raptor replacement, advances whose capabilities could rival those of the winning jet design at a much lower cost.

Boeing secured the contract for the US Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance program, or NGAD, to develop the sixth-generation F-47. Lockheed Martin didn’t protest the decision.

“Our target is 80% of the capability of an NGAD sixth-generation at 50% of the unit costs,” Taiclet said.

These improvements would be introduced in stages, he said, with consideration to how the aircraft will be integrated with other systems. Some updates could be done in two to three years for “a meaningful increase in capacity,” Taiclet said.

That includes stealth coatings on the aircraft’s surface and adjustments to its shape, as well as electronic warfare and weapons capabilities upgrades. Sixth-generation are a class of aircraft whose stealth, speed, automation and extended range are expected to make them the world’s premier aircraft as they enter service in the 2030s.

More than 1,200 F-35s have already been delivered to the US and 12 additional countries’ militaries. The F-35 program has hit several snags over the years, including costs and goals. The lifetime F-35 program costs top $2 trillion, and sustainability costs are also rising. Last year, the US Government Accountability Office assessed that the F-35 isn’t hitting mission-capable goals and hasn’t for years. 

On a company earnings call in April, Taiclet said the fifth-gen plus upgrade focused on better capabilities at a lower cost but details were sparse. “We’re basically going to take the [F-35] chassis and turn it into a Ferrari,” he said.

AI-guided fighters

Autonomous or uncrewed capabilities in aircraft have been a top priority for the US Air Force. Its Collaborative Combat Aircraft initiative has focused on unmanned aircraft capable of operating alongside piloted aircraft or autonomously for a variety of missions.

Air Force leadership has touted these “loyal wingmen” as not only giving pilots a variety of options for how to employ them — as sensors, weapons carriers, or jamming platforms — but also offering the possibility of having enough with lower costs than crewed aircraft. That could be key in a conflict with a peer adversary, like China or Russia. A pilot could direct a CCA on missions too dangerous for crewed fighters.

At the conference, Taiclet said Lockheed Martin’s interest in pilot-optional F-35s lent itself to the CCA.

“We’re thinking of the F-35 not just as a standalone aircraft, but how it can interface with sixth generation and with unmanned aircraft and itself be optionally manned,” he said.

Efforts for F-35 autonomy would be similar to the Air Force’s AI-guided F-16 fighter jet that’s been used in recent years to test AI pilots. The aircraft is part of the Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA)’s AI fighter jet pilot program, which has been working on testing, iterating, and updating AI agents to fly the jet.

Last year, then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall flew in the X-62A pilot by AI, “witnessing several AI agents as they autonomously maneuvered the X-62 against a manned F-16 in dogfighting engagements,” an Air Force official said at the time.

Those manned-unmanned dogfights have been ongoing and the service has said it’s learning a lot of information from them, especially on how autonomous aircraft could aid or support manned pilots.

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