Lockheed Martin, which is competing in the next-generation US warrior opposition, is betting heavily on turning the F-35 into a “fifth-gen-plus” fighter by retrofitting today’s technology into the plane of the future to be competitive.
According to multiple media sources, Lockheed Martin’s CEO, Jim Taiclet, will not contest Boeing‘s bid to award the US Air Force’s$ 20 billion Next Generation Air Dominance ( NGAD ) fighter contract.
The business announced plans to incorporate technology from its stale NGAD charge into improved versions of its F-35 and F-22 combatants.
By making the F-35 into a warrior from the fifth-gen plus, Taiclet stated during an earnings call that Lockheed aims to “deliver 80 % of sixth-generation capacity at 50 % of the cost.” Advancements may include secrecy, passive infrared sensors, advanced tracking, and weapon systems, some of which are currently being developed as part of the F-35 Block 4 upgrade.
According to Lockheed executives, the company plans to trade some of these improvements, area to US federal approval. With a planned 3,500 F-35 ships worldwide, Lockheed hopes its upgraded jets will provide a cost-effective option to the unnamed, possible multi-million-dollar NGAD aircraft.
Lockheed is partially cut out of all publicly known advanced warrior courses as a result of the NGAD determination, which was made by US President Donald Trump in March 2025. Boeing offered NGAD the “best general value,” according to the US Air Force.
The F-35 may be upgraded to a mirror finish as part of the Next Gen 2.0 OML Coating Program, which is crucial for the terrible, acidic maritime environment used in plane carrier-based operations, according to a March 2025 article from Naval News.
Additionally, David Cenciotti and StefanoD’Urso notice that the camera covering might be able to shield the F-35 from low-power lasers in an August 2022 essay for The Aviationist.
In an article for Air &, Space Forces Magazine in October 2024, John Tirpak mentions that the F-35 Engine Core Upgrade (ECU) is designed to improve the strength and life duration of the aircraft’s Pratt and Whitney F135 vehicles, which have suffered in recent years as a result of increased and innovative tools installed on the plane.
Tirpak points out that the F-35’s Block 4 upgrade’s cooling, performance, and electrical power requirements are met by the ECU upgrade.
The F-35 is unique from most US fighters because it was developed using an EOTS ( EOTS ) IRST system from the beginning, but the A-EOTS upgrade offers improved resolution, multi-spectral range, greater reliability, and lower operating hour costs.
TWZ reported in January 2023 that the new AN/APG-85 radar, which is most likely a gallium nitride ( GN ) based system, could significantly increase the F-35’s radar range and resolution and support more dynamic electronic warfare tactics.
The A-EOTS AN/APG-85 DAS combination, combined with the Distributed Aperture System ( DAS ), which gives F-35 pilots a 360-degree view through the aircraft, can significantly improve the aircraft’s” see-first, shoot-first” advantage.
Although much of the secretive weapon’s capabilities are classified, as stated by TWZ in a February 2025 article, new armaments, such as the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile ( JATM), could significantly increase the range and lethality of the F-35 in US military service.
Integration restrictions, however, mean upgrades will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary; however, the F-35 must operate within the physical and technical constraints established years ago. For instance, the US Director of Operational Test & Evaluation ( DOT & E) FY2024 Annual Report mentions that significant hardware and software issues have resulted from integrating the Technology Refresh-3 ( TR-3 ) avionics upgrade, which is necessary for Block 4 mission capabilities.
Due to poor mission system software performance, the report claims, the program had to put off the delivery of aircraft equipped with TR-3 due to these issues.
The constraints of the F-35’s existing TR-2 architecture, according to the report, limited the scope of feasible improvements and highlighted inherent limitations set by legacy design choices.
According to The Asia Live, some analysts claim that sixth-generation fighters involve fundamental design changes that can’t be accomplished by upgrading existing platforms, such as the F-35.
These include “digital first” architecture, adaptive engines for optimized performance, and airframe shapes for better stealth, according to the report.
Upgrades would be useless if the F-35’s reliability issues were not addressed, in addition to those challenges. According to the US DOT&, E FY2024 Annual Report, the US F-35 fleet falls short of a number of reliability standards set out in the Joint Strike Fighter Operational Requirements Document ( JSF ORD ).
The F-35A, F-35B, and F-35C fail to meet important thresholds for mean flight hours between critical failures ( MFHBCF), which determine how frequently serious failures occur that prevent mission completion or compromise flight safety, in FY23.
Additionally, the report mentions that trends in the mean corrective maintenance time for critical failures (MCMTCF ) and mean mean repair time ( MTTR ) have not improved significantly, which indicates that there are ongoing challenges to keeping aircraft readiness.
The F-35 could become a viable replacement for other upcoming sixth-generation aircraft thanks to Lockheed Martin’s effort to retrofit it with some sixth-generation technology.
For instance, the UK’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS ) was listed in the country’s Annual Report on Major Projects 2023-2024 with a red rating. A red rating, in the report, indicates that the project’s success appears to be unachievable, with significant issues emerging as unmanageable or unresolvable.
Additionally, Justin Bronk mentions that the UK-Italy-Japan Global Combat Air Program ( GCAP ) is unlikely to produce a product that is more expensive than the F-35 in an April 2023 article for the Royal United Services Institute ( RUSI).
The UK’s FCAS is made up of the GCAP. The former is a global collaboration, while the former is a UK initiative that makes use of its partners ‘ industrial and technological expertise for advancement.
Although Bronk points out that the F-35 is not a flawless program, decades of US expertise and investment in cutting-edge sensors, weapons, electronic warfare, stealth, as well as ongoing upgrades and retrofitting have had undeniable results.
He mentions that every air force that has evaluated the F-35 against US or European competitors chose it because of its unmatched ability to operate in contested airspace. According to Bronk, if the GCAP is constructed in the 2030s, it won’t be able to compete with the F-35 of the future.
However, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program’s evolutionary strategy may not be effective against adversaries who favor technology transition. China may have flown prototype sixth-generation fighters already and may be gearing up for serial production with 3, 500 F-35s that are eligible for the fifth-generation upgrade. Making such improvements too slowly, too little, and too late is a long way off.