Boeing Claims Progress on T-7 and Other Challenged Programs

Boeing Claims Progress on T-7 and Other Challenged Programs

April 25, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

Boeing’s defense programs saw huge losses in the past decade, but the company now says it’s got those issues under control and steadily improving its performance and approaching profitability. Boeing suffered no losses from defense programs in the most recent quarter, a welcome improvement from 2024 when the company lost $5.4 billion on defense.

“We’ve made real good progress,” said Boeing president and CEO Kelly Ortberg during the company’s April 23 first-quarter earnings call. Programs improving include the T-7 trainer, VC-25 presidential transport, KC-46 tanker and Starliner space capsule

“I think we’ve got all these programs now, well-contained,” he said. “I’m not claiming victory yet—we’ve got a lot of work to do…—but I do think our discipline, cost, risk management and active management with our customers to get to a win-win on these programs is helping.” 

Boeing’s is stabilizing its fixed-price contracts as the programs mature. “This quarter results reflected stabilizing operational performance, and we remain focused on retiring risk each quarter and ultimately delivering these mission-critical capabilities to our customers,” Ortberg said.

Cracks discovered in KC-46 aileron hinges in February—which triggered a temporary hold on new tanker deliveries—were “identified…very quickly,” Ortberg said.

“It isn’t a safety-of-flight issue,” he said. “The population that they had to [repair] was small. The rework, they could get to that very quickly. So it really wasn’t a big deal.”

Since January when the Air Force and Boeing signed a Memorandum of Agreement on how to proceed with the T-7, the program has progressed, Ortberg said.

“We achieved the first two [Engineering and Manufacturing Development] performance milestones outlined in the MOA,” Ortberg said, “which continues to be an important example of how we are working with our customers to find better overall outcomes for both parties.”

Under the deal, the Air Force is buying four additional test aircraft—in addition to the five already accepted—that are of a “production representative” configuration, in order to accelerate the test program, already some two years behind schedule. The aircraft, bought with research and development money, will be delivered in fiscal 2026. Assuming no further substantive delays, the T-7 will be ready for operations in 2027, about four years later than originally planned.

Overall, Ortberg said, “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 our development programs and transition to new contracts with tighter underwriting standards.”

The call was the first since Boeing won the F-47 Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter contract in March, but Ortberg said little due to government secrecy. “We’re not at liberty to disclose anything relative to the contract structure beyond what the Air Force has said,” Ortberg explained. The Air Force has said Boeing won the cost-plus contract on the basis of “best value.”

“Clearly we haven’t come off our strategy of ensuring we’re entering into the appropriate contract type for the appropriate type of work,” Ortberg said. In past years, Boeing was guilty of underbidding, but more recently the company has sworn off low-ball and fixed-price bids. Such gambles have cost the company at least $10 billion over the past decade.  

“So, I wouldn’t worry that we’ve signed up to…undue risk, like we’ve done in some of our past fixed-price programs,” Ortberg said. “But that’s about all I can say on that right now.”

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Kadena Adds Second Batch of F-35s to Its Fighter Rotation

Kadena Adds Second Batch of F-35s to Its Fighter Rotation

April 25, 2025 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Air Force deployed a second group of F-35s to Kadena Air Base this month, reinforcing its fighter presence at the key base in the wake of retiring all operational F-15C Eagles from the installation.

The stealthy jets and Airmen from the 421st Fighter Squadron, nicknamed the “Black Widows” out of Hill Air Force Base, Utah, touched down at the base on Japan’s Okinawa island on April 24. Kadena is now hosting two F-35 squadrons, with the Hill unit joining an F-35 squadron from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska—as well as F-15E Strike Eagles from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., arrived earlier this month.

“Our unit values the distinctive training opportunities afforded by our deployment to the Indo-Pacific and is eager to contribute to the mission,” Lt. Col. Bryan Mussler, 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron commander, said in a release.

A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, lands at Kadena Air Base, Japan, April 24, 2025. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Arnet Tamayo

This marks back-to-back deployment of Hill F-35s to Kadena, following a previous assignment that began in November.

“The Black Widows are thrilled to be back and flying with our allies and partners here at Kadena,” Mussler added.

Hill is home to three active-duty F-35 fighter squadrons under the 388th Fighter Wing: the 4th, 34th, and 421st Fighter Squadrons, each equipped with 24 stealth fighters and 6 backup jets. The base’s reserve unit, the 419th Fighter Wing, also operates its own fleet of F-35s and supports routine operations through the 466th Fighter Squadron. Over the past two years, members from all four squadrons have been deployed to Kadena at least once.

With two new F-35 squadrons on the ground, Kadena’s 18th Wing is phasing out its previous fighter rotation. The F-35s of the Vermont Air National Guard’s 134th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, which arrived at the base in January, have returned from Japan as of April 25, a Vermont ANG spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The rest of the Vermont Guardsmen are also expected to return “very soon,” as they wrap up their four-month tour at the base.

A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, lands at Kadena Air Base, Japan, April 24, 2025. The continuous rotation of aircraft to Kadena ensures the 18th Wing remains flexible and postured to deliver lethal and credible airpower to deter acts of aggression. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Arnet Tamayo)

The active-duty squadron deployment to the strategic base typically lasts 5 to 6 months, involving hundreds of Airmen, including pilots, maintainers, and support crew for the fighter jets. During the 388th Fighter Wing’s previous assignment with the 18th Wing, Airmen highlighted the different tempo of being stationed at the strategic base 400 miles from mainland China.

“Here we have near-peer threats right across the water and we are expected to go out and perform every day with a moment’s notice,” Senior Airman Jideofur Emeka, 34th Force Generation Squadron dedicated crew chief, said in a release.

The 18th Wing has hosted a steady stream of fighter deployments since the Air Force began phasing out its F-15C/D models in 2022. The base will continue hosting rotations of fourth- and fifth-generation jets throughout its full transition to a fleet of 36 F-15EXs. This unique rotation also gives deployed Airmen the chance to train alongside units and aircraft they wouldn’t typically work with.

“Being out here [at Kadena] gives us the opportunity to fly with the other aircraft that are out here rotationally like the F-22, the F-16, the F-15s that are still here,” said Capt. Stephen Schultz, 34th EFS pilot and weapons team chief.

The wing anticipates the first delivery of the Eagle IIs between March and June 2026.

Meanwhile, Misawa Air Base, located on the northernmost edge of Japan, is set to phase out its fleet of F-16s starting this summer, replacing them with 48 F-35s to become the first U.S. base in Asia to permanently host the stealth fighter fleet. A series of fighter rotations similar to Kadena’s may begin at Misawa later this year to ensure no gaps in operations during the transition, as the base won’t receive its first batch of F-35s until spring 2026.

New Jersey F-16s Lend Their ‘Voice’ to Popular Flight Simulator

New Jersey F-16s Lend Their ‘Voice’ to Popular Flight Simulator

April 25, 2025 | By David Roza

F-16s assigned to the New Jersey Air National Guard will live forever in the popular video game Microsoft Flight Simulator, thanks to an audio producer whose goal is to help make virtual flight as realistic as possible.

“It’s not just sound, it’s an experience,” Tyler Bolhuis, CEO and founder of Echo 19 Audio Productions, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “I’m so passionate about the flight sim environment, and I want other people to experience that excitement.”

Bolhuis visited the 177th Fighter Wing at Atlantic City Air National Guard Base in February to record the sounds that virtual pilots will hear flying the F-16, including cockpit switches and buttons, the battery turning on, the canopy opening and closing, the engines starting up, and the roar of the fighter as it flies overhead at low altitude.

The audio will feature in an upcoming module for the 2024 and 2020 editions of Microsoft Flight Simulator, the best-selling series enjoyed by pilots, aviation fans, and aspiring Air Force aviators alike. Third-party developers—in this case a well-known developer called IndiaFoxtEcho—create and sell add-ons for specific aircraft that users can fly on Microsoft Flight Simulator or other programs.

It is a full-circle moment for Bolhuis, who growing up felt the sound design of flight simulator add-ons often misrepresented the aircraft he heard at airshows.

“Even at a young age, I was like, ‘this just doesn’t sound right,’ which was frustrating after working hard for an allowance to buy an add-on,” he said.

Over time, Bolhuis made a name for himself producing high-quality sound mods for games such as Arma and Digital Combat Simulator, so much so that his hobby became a full-fledged business when he started Echo 19. 

“Flight simulation audio is a very niche business, but it’s worked out well so far,” he said. “The graphics look so good in modern-day video games, but sound really drives emotion.”

Bolhuis has recorded C-17s, F/A-18 Super Hornets, F-35s, civilian helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, and older warbirds such as the P-51. The C-17 in particular is a treat to listen to as all the subsystems on the flight deck power up, he said.

Tyler Bolhuis, founder and CEO of Echo19 Audio Production, records the sound of a closing cockpit canopy on an F-16 assigned to the 177th Fighter Wing at Atlantic City Air National Guard Base, N.J., Feb. 26, 2025. Screenshot via U.S. Air National Guard video by Senior Airman Connor Taggart

The 177th Fighter Wing was excited about the opportunity and covered the event with a press release and video posted to social media. Bolhuis timed his visit to coincide with scheduled F-16 maintenance and practice flights, so taxpayers did not have to pay for any additional gas or man-hours.

Recording aircraft sounds requires careful planning and familiarity with the aircraft; the ear-shredding roar of a fighter jet engine, for example, requires special microphones that can pick up such a high level of noise in a detailed way. 

“You could capture those loud sounds on your iPhone, but it’s going to sound a lot different compared to a $1,000 or $1,500 microphone designed to pick up specific frequencies,” Bolhuis explained. 

Each type of engine has unique characteristics: the F-16’s General Electric engine has a slightly different tone while sitting idle or ramping up RPMs compared to the Pratt & Whitney F-16 engine, for example. 

“That’s where it becomes really important to know the aircraft that you’re recording,” Bolhuis explained. “We spend a lot of time researching and talking with the developers about the unique features of the aircraft.”

The producer uses multiple microphones to capture those unique sounds, including the way the engine intake sucks in air.

“We essentially create layers so that we can create a mix of certain sounds and frequencies that we want to highlight,” he explained.

Tyler Bolhuis, founder and CEO of Echo19 Audio Production, records the sound of a flight control stick on an F-16 assigned to the 177th Fighter Wing at Atlantic City Air National Guard Base, N.J., Feb. 26, 2025. Screenshot via U.S. Air National Guard video by Senior Airman Connor Taggart

Safety comes first, so Bolhuis briefs the plan with the base, the air crew, and the maintainers beforehand. It’s not uncommon for Airmen to recognize the Echo 19 brand and be excited to meet its founder.

“They’re like, ‘whoa, you’re Echo 19?'” he said. “I feel a little out of it because I’m like, ‘oh my God, I’m famous,’” he said.  

The Airmen helpfully turned off fans and kept down chatter in the hangar while Bolhuis captured the cockpit noises.

“We’ll get as many as we can, understanding that most of the switches and buttons sound the same,” he explained. “Some of them don’t make sounds, but in video games and flight simulators, we rely on auditory feedback to get a sense that that action has happened.” 

The hard work starts when Bolhuis gets back to his home in Michigan to edit the audio, which takes up the vast majority of his time on a project.

“It takes a lot of work to get sounds to translate from the real world into a digital one, but it’s a very rewarding process,” he said.

There has not been a publicly announced release date for the add-on featuring the Jersey Devils F-16s, but when it does come out, the jets should sound just like they did that day in February.

“It’s cool to be able to give these iconic planes the sounds that they truly deserve,” Bolhuis said.

Air Force Futures Boss Leans Toward ‘Low End’ CCA in Next Increment

Air Force Futures Boss Leans Toward ‘Low End’ CCA in Next Increment

April 24, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

The next iteration of the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft are likely to be less sophisticated than Increment 1, now in development—and could include air-launched vehicles, according to the head of Air Force Futures.

“I think you’ll see a range of options, from the low end to potentially a more exquisite” autonomous, uncrewed CCA, said Maj. Gen. Jospeh D. Kunkel during an AFA “Warfighters in Action” discussion April 24. “I tend to think that it’s probably going to be closer to this low-end thing, when we start looking at the further CCA increments.”

Kunkel acknowledged that, in his last months in the job, former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall speculated that Increment 2 would be a “more exquisite” aircraft than Increment 1, which yielded two aircraft that are now in fabrication and expected to start flight tests this summer.

“It might be,” Kunkel said. “But we’re also seeing that there’s going to be room … for other capabilities that aren’t as exquisite … that are cheaper, that provide mass.” Kunkel said the driving purpose driving CCA development is the need for “affordable mass,” the ability to put more aircraft in the skies to overwhelm and confuse adversaries without breaking the bank.

“We’ve got to look at … how we generate combat power, and that generation of combat power from bases is important, but there might be other ways … that don’t rely on bases,” Kunkel said. “That might be something that we might be looking at as we start looking at future increments of CCA. That is a big portion of it.”

Increment 1 prototypes being built by Anduril Industries and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems will take off conventionally, from a runway, and their mission will be air-to-air combat—to be flying weapons magazines that escort and help defend crewed fighters. Later increments have long been expected to take on other missions, such as electronic warfare and ground attack.

Kunkel said the idea for CCAs came from “baby F-22 drivers” like himself years ago, “sitting around the bar at Elmendorf, saying, ‘Man, I ran out of missiles after only five minutes of fight. If only I had this ‘loyal wingman,’ that wouldn’t talk back to me, but would also be able to just shoot some missiles.’ … We didn’t call it CCA back then, but we’re now getting to the point [of] realizing” the concept.

An air-launched CCA would have to be significantly smaller and lighter than Increment 1 aircraft; it is not clear whether that would be less costly. The Air Force has experimented with launching pallets of missiles from the back of cargo planes, under a series of tests called Rapid Dragon, which Kunkel seemed to reference.  

A less-sophisticated CCA would overlap with the utility of cruise missiles, said one industry critic who questioned the concept. “We already have missiles that don’t come back,” he said. “Why build something that is meant to have hundreds of hours of use if you’re going to use it like a missile? The math doesn’t add up.”

Kunkel also said CCAs will likely support virtually all combat aircraft, from the new F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance fighter to F-16s, and also could be used independently from crewed aircraft, as well.

“Integration with the F-47 makes the F-47 better. CCA integration with F-35, F-22 … I would suggest, potentially in the future, the B-21, E-7, and maybe just a CCA on its own, complicates the adversary picture, [and] puts us in a better position,” Kunkel said.

Flying fleets of CCAs will tax adversaries’ defenses, making it “a more complex and harder fight” by attacking from multiple axes, and creating a “dense threat environment.”

Kunkel said the future Air Force force design started a year ago is now “mature” and will be completed soon. It will be adaptive and “enduring,” rather than something in need of constant revision. But it will take time to execute, perhaps a decade to be complete. It will also be fundamentally joint, and predicated on accomplishing effects at long range. The Air Force and other services have formed a “Joint, Long-Range Kill Chain Organization” to collaborate on leveraging digital connectivity to ensure faster target hand-offs to empower the platform best positioned to make a needed strike.  

The new force design will depend on industry’s ability to generate and sustain an evolving selection of weapons that will not be so pricey as to be exhausted after a few weeks of intensive fighting, he said.

“We’ve been pursuing cheaper weapons,” because the U.S. needs to impose cost on the adversary, rather than the reverse, Kunkel said.

“If we’re shooting multimillion dollar missiles against…multi-thousand dollar drones…that doesn’t make sense for us,” he said. “We need to figure out how to do it so we don’t find ourselves…depleting weapons, when, frankly, we don’t need to.”

The Air Force can ill afford to use up “the exquisite weapons they have on day one,” and then turn to “turn into, you know, “moderately exquisite weapons on day 15, and then by day 30 … [start] dropping Mark 82 and dumb bombs that we’ve had since World War II. We want to put [the future force] in position where this weapons portfolio we have is pretty solid, and you can count on the same from day one through day 600.”

Kunkel said last month’s selection of Boeing to build the “game-changing” F-47 made for a “fantastic day for the Air Force,” because “it showed the confidence of the President…in our United States Air Force, which I think is extremely important [and] it also assured air superiority for generations to come.”

He said the service came full circle in its monthslong reassessment of the NGAD program.

“I guess we probably didn’t need to do the analysis, because what we found is that we were right, that air superiority, in fact, does matter, that it changes the entire complex of the fight … not just for the Air Force [but for] the joint force…It allows…the joint force to get places where it otherwise couldn’t.”

The F-47, Kunkel said, “allows us to move closer to the adversary, allows us to counter the adversary.”

SDA Hires an Integrator to Keep Its Next Satellite Tranche on Schedule

SDA Hires an Integrator to Keep Its Next Satellite Tranche on Schedule

April 24, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

After supply chain challenges delayed the first few tranches of its ambitious low-Earth orbit constellation, the Space Development Agency is changing its approach, hiring an engineering and integration partner to help manage the next tranche of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.

SDA awarded a $55 million contract to SAIC on April 22 for “system engineering and integration support activities,” through which SAIC will help review and manage requirements, schedule, engineering, and risk management for Tranche 3. According to the contract solicitation, the winning bidder would oversee technical reviews, schedule management, verification and integration test plans, as well as “trade studies” to help prioritize and “inform critical decisions that impact [Tranche 3] Program delivery.”

It’s the first time SDA has hired an integrator for this purpose; it previously awarded $887 million in management and integration contracts to General Dynamics Mission Systems to integrate ground systems for Tranches 1 and 2; those contracts focused on outfitting operations centers and ensuring data compatibility among disparate satellites feeding into an integrated architecture. 

The SAIC deal is broader, designed to “enable the delivery of the T3 Program,” a significant departure from SDA’s prior practice, an agency official told Air & Space Forces Magazine.  

The decision to bring in integration support comes as SDA faces some pressure to move from contract awards to capabilities in orbit. Its initial “Tranche 0” satellites launched in 2023 and early 2024 after several delays, and its first Tranche 1 launch has been delayed until late this summer. Officials cited delivery delays and issues with contractors not being able to scale their supply chain. 

“With the spiral development model, SDA continuously pushes lessons learned into subsequent tranches,” a spokesperson said. “SDA decided to contract with a Tranche 3 integrator based on lessons learned from acquiring and delivery of Tranche 1 and Tranche 2.” 

Tranche 3 is expected to include around 190 satellites and will be the first to replace earlier PWSA satellites with refreshed, improved capabilities. The objective is to maintain a steady state of around 450 satellites in the architecture. 

For now, SDA is sticking with its latest projected launch schedule: Tranche 1 will start going up in late summer 2025, Tranche 2 in late 2026, and Tranche 3 in late summer 2028. The goal is to deliver initial regional coverage with Tranche 1, followed by global coverage with Tranche 2. 

Sticking to that schedule could be crucial to SDA’s role in President Donald Trump’s ambitious “Golden Dome” missile defense initiative, which seeks to start fielding capability by early 2029. 

SDA already has a solicitation circulating for acquring Tranche 3 missile warning and tracking satellites; it is expected to release soon solicitations for the data transport satellites as well.

USAF Doubles Down on More F-16 Fighters near North Korea

USAF Doubles Down on More F-16 Fighters near North Korea

April 24, 2025 | By Unshin Lee Harpley and Chris Gordon

The U.S. Air Force will ramp up its presence near North Korea by sending more than two dozen additional F-16 fighters to Osan Air Base, South Korea, creating a second “super squadron” there.

Osan, located just 50 miles south of the Korean border, will welcome 31 extra Vipers and 1,000 Airmen from Kunsan Air Base to its southwest in October, service officials said. The latest move will further centralize the Air Force’s footprint on the peninsula. The Air Force started the “Super Squadron” initiative last year, relocating nine F-16s from Kunsan to Osan, upping the base’s fleet to 31 of the fighters—a number that is now set to double after Air Force Chief of Staff David W. Allvin recently signed off on the standup of the second super squadron.

“This temporary change allows us to test and validate force generation capabilities on the Korean peninsula, ultimately fostering a more lethal, ready air component,” Allvin wrote in a post on X. “The Super Squadron test aims to increase sortie generation and combat capability, while enhancing readiness and responsiveness.”

In a release, Seventh Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. David Iverson said the initiative has been a “success” so far and the Air Force now wants to consolidate its F-16s at Osan to further test the Super Squadron structure.

“The past months of data reveal that we’re on the right track and the consolidated, larger unit has shown some increases in readiness and combat capability, while also exposing some challenges,” said Iverson.

While Air Force officials say no permanent decisions have been made, the service has not specified exactly how long the experiment will last.

Two U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons assigned to the 36th Fighter Squadron park next to each other before being cleared to takeoff at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, March 19, 2025. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Dustin Braaten

The Air Force Personnel Center will begin making assignment updates for the affected Airmen in the coming weeks, according to Lt. Col. Aaron Tissot, Seventh Air Force director of manpower, personnel, and services.

“Our goal is to minimize disruptions and ensure a smooth transition for our Airmen throughout this process,” Tissot said.

The move also comes as Osan is in the process of bidding farewell to its 24 A-10 aircraft, where the 25th Fighter Squadron has flown the venerable close air support aircraft since 1993. Without the A-10, Osan would have been left with only one squadron of aircraft.

The previous F-16 transfer, initiated last summer, was originally intended to last a year. This upcoming second phase will continue to assess these areas on a larger scale, Air Force officials said.

The goal of Super Squadrons is to provide benefits in readiness and training while “reducing manpower and logistic support requirements,” said Lt. Col. Karl Wiest, a spokesperson for Allvin.

Allvin has previously said he wants to decrease excess infrastructure and logistical requirements across the Air Force and reinvest those funds.

“After thorough analysis, Osan was chosen as best able to support the housing and support needs of the Airmen required to execute the Super Squadron test, having recently supported similar personnel requirements during Kunsan’s runway construction project in 2023,” Wiest said.

The previous nine additional F-16s with Osan’s 36th Fighter Squadron supported a number of joint missions, including a recent Freedom Shield exercise in March by “participating in the live-fly exercise portions of the training, engaging in combat training missions focused on air interdiction, close air support, static and dynamic targeting and combat air patrols,” a Seventh Air Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine.  

Many of these fighters also participated in an ACE exercise, deploying to an alternate base “to rehearse the unit’s ability to quickly maneuver forces around the region while maintaining combat flying operations,” the spokesperson added.

An F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 36th Fighter Squadron takes off at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, March 10, 2025. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jason W. Cochran

The upcoming transfer will leave Kunsan with a far diminished flightline. Presuming the nine jets previously moved to Osan remain in place, the addition of 31 more would leave Kunsan with only a handful of aircraft.

For the time being however, the host 8th Fighter Wing plans to continue operating as “a primary exercise and rotational force bed-down location for U.S. air component forces in the ROK,” according to the release.

“We acknowledge this is a major shift in how we operate here at Kunsan,” said Col. Peter Kasarskis, 8th Fighter Wing commander. “We’ll meet this change with the same warfighter mindset the Wolf Pack has maintained through our history, and strengthen our ability to accept follow-on forces, defend the base, and take the fight north.”

The wing also plans to maintain active flightline operations and facilities as well as maintaining war reserve material and munitions at multiple locations across the country.

What a ‘Ferrari’ Version of the F-35 Might Look Like—and What the Pentagon Thinks

What a ‘Ferrari’ Version of the F-35 Might Look Like—and What the Pentagon Thinks

April 24, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

Lockheed Martin’s new push for a more powerful F-35—unveiled this week as the company announced it won’t protest the Air Force’s choice of Boeing for the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter—might largely be the NGAD alternative Air Force leaders from the previous administration were talking about as they deliberated whether to go ahead with what is now known as the F-47.

Last September, former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall suggested the service might look at “disaggregating” some of NGAD fighter’s sensors and other capabilities to Collaborative Combat Aircraft, USAF’s planned autonomous escorts to the crewed fighter fleet, and shifting to a new, less complex fighter costing about the same or less than an F-35.

Ultimately, the Trump administration decided to move forward with NGAD largely as planned and tapped Boeing to build it—leaving Lockheed Martin, builder of the F-35, on the outside looking in.

In an April 22 earnings call, however, Lockheed president and CEO Jim Taiclet said he believes the F-35 could be upgraded to deliver 80 percent of the NGAD’s capability at half its cost, using technologies developed for the F-22 and the NGAD itself; what he termed a “Ferrari” version of the fighter.

“We have 70,000 engineers and scientists in the company working on really interesting stuff all the time,” Taiclet said. “Some of the fifth-gen-plus solution set is already being funded by the U.S. government and the F-35 program itself.” Secrecy prevented him from being too explicit about what could be done with the F-35 to achieve this capability, but the steps involve “key techniques, I’ll say, and approaches that [the] fighter pilot needs to have to be competitive and win.”

Answering a question about whether the new capabilities would be company- or government-funded, Taiclet said some come from “our government-funded investment in R&D, the competitive process … funded for both Lockheed Martin and Boeing [for NGAD] over a period of years by the government. And, you know, we made independent investments along the way, too, in both” the F-35 and NGAD.

At half NGAD’s projected cost, an upgraded F-35 could be around $150 million per airplane; a price level near what Kendall has said would exceed the affordability that international partners and foreign military sales customers require. Taiclet did not say whether he views the “Ferrari” F-35 as becoming the fleet standard, but did say that engineers are looking at potential upgrades with an eye toward exportability.

An F-35A Lightning II arrives at Edwards Air Force Base, California, Aug. 1, 2022. Air Force photo by Chase Kohler

What would be different about a fifth-gen-plus F-35? Some of the technologies to consider include:

  • Sensors: Taiclet said the need to sense and track an enemy—particularly one that is a stealthy aircraft itself—is necessary “at a distance greater than they can sense you.” Lockheed has developed an infrared search and track system that has been seen on the wings of the F-22 in recent tests. “Passive infrared is really important,” Taiclet said, “because if I’m transmitting radar, that means somebody else’s electronic warfare receiver can see me, and then they can maybe shoot me.” With passive IR, “nobody can sense that. And the best radar on top of those kinds of sensors [is] really, really critical.”
  • Extreme Low Observability: Taiclet said he was in a meeting at the White House and the president—he didn’t say which president—said “Dogfights are not what we want anymore,” and Taiclet agreed that “we want to shoot the other guys … even before they know we’re there.” Throughout his discussion of the upgraded F-35, Taiclet referred to using the F-35 “chassis” to host new systems. That might include new wings and control surfaces. The F-35’s planform was designed to make it a good dogfighter, able to turn at 9Gs in the Air Force version and 7.5 Gs in the Marine Corps and Navy models. But if air-to-air maneuvering is less important than greater stealth, the F-35’s high G-loading might be reduced to allow more a more stealthy airframe that would be more of a missile truck than a dogfighter. Taiclet said it would be possible to tweak “materials … geometries [and] countermeasures” to give the F-35 more stealth. That would likely also involve removing the verticals and making the F-35 a tailless design.
  • More Powerful Engines: Powerplants already exist to make the Air Force F-35A faster, with better climb and acceleration plus more electricity for sensors and processors. GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney developed Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) engines with all of these characteristics, specifically designed to drop into the current F-35. But the Air Force initially elected not to pursue the AETP last year, given that the service would have had to pay to develop them further without help from the Navy or Marine Corps, and adopting them would create at least two engine logistics trains to support the F-35 program, adding sustainment cost.
  • Weapons: The highly classified AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile—also developed by Lockheed—is in testing and is intended to restore some of the F-22’s “first look, first kill” capability by being able to shoot a stealth target as soon as it is detected. In sufficient quantities, the AIM-260 would be available to equip a large part of the F-35 force and extend its lethal reach.
  • Range: The F-22 has been tested with stealthy underwing pylons and fuel tanks that will significantly enhance its range, though how much is a secret. The F-35’s different shaping would probably require different versions of those on the F-22, but the principles should make adapting the concept to the F-35 fairly straightforward.
  • Stealthy Communications: Whatever capabilities have been developed to make the NGAD able to send and receive data and voice communications without being detected is likely to be portable to the F-35.   

Taiclet said he would not have put forth the concept of the “Ferrari” version of the F-35 if he didn’t believe the concept was achievable.

“My challenge to my aeronautics team is, let’s get 80 percent of sixth-gen capability at half the price,’ he said. “And these engineers … wouldn’t have agreed to this if they didn’t think there was a path to get there.”

However, Lockheed seemingly did not speak with the Air Force before unveiling the concept. At an AFA Warfighters in Action event April 24, Maj. Gen. Joseph D. Kunkel, deputy chief of staff for Air Force Futures, said that he had no discussions with Lockheed on a fifth-gen-plus F-35 and declined to comment further.

The F-35 Joint Program Office, meanwhile, told Air & Space Forces Magazine that it had no comment on the idea, “as the discussion remains entirely notional at this stage.”

Still, Taiclet projected optimism that the Pentagon will embrace the idea: “That’s something we’re going to go out and do. And this is how we get best value to the customer, who has a limited budget and an increasing threat. We use these digital technologies. We apply something from one system, one to another, and we actually try to create that best value equation.”

Acting Pentagon CIO Signing Off on New, Faster Cyber Rules for Contractors

Acting Pentagon CIO Signing Off on New, Faster Cyber Rules for Contractors

April 23, 2025 | By Shaun Waterman

A new fast-track approval process for software on Defense Department networks will use AI tools to radically shorten a process that currently takes months or years, Acting Pentagon Chief Information Officer Katie Arrington said April 23.  

Arrington told an audience of industry executives at an AFCEA DC luncheon event that the new Software Fast Track (SWIFT) process will use “AI tools on the back end” to replace the Authorization To Operate (ATO) process, which governs the way software products are certified for use on military networks, and the venerable Risk Management Framework (RMF), which has guided decisions about cybersecurity in DOD for more than a decade. 

“I’m blowing up the RMF, blowing up the ATOs. They’re stupid. They’re archaic,” she said, lambasting the extensive paper-based documentation ATOs require. 

Instead, she said, SWIFT will collect third-party data about the cybersecurity of vendors and technical information about the makeup of their software, through a government web application called eMASS and keep it in the Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS), a database where contractor performance and cybersecurity compliance information is stored. 

SWIFT was first previewed by DOD Chief Software Officer Rob Veitmeyer earlier this month, but this is the first time it’s been suggested that the new process will eliminate the role of the RMF, which has been the veritable Bible of cybersecurity risk management in defense since its adoption in 2014.  

SWIFT appears to build on a process developed at Kessel Run, the Air Force’s original software factory, and piloted service-wide in 2019, known as “Fast Track ATO.”  But it will go even further, Arrington said, because the criteria for authorization themselves will change, not just the means used to assess them. Software vendors will have to provide a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for their products and their production environment—and get it certified by an independent third party, she said. 

An SBOM is effectively an index of all the other pieces of software which are inside a computer program. Modern software makes extensive use of publicly available programs, called open source code libraries, to perform computing tasks. But this means that a vulnerability in one of those libraries can create a vulnerability in any program that uses it, making it important to document all the dependencies of a given piece of software.    

Arrington said her direction to software providers will be: “Provide me your SBOM for both your sandbox and production [environments], along with a third-party SBOM,” by uploading them into eMASS. 

“I will have AI tools on the back end to review the data instead of waiting for a human. If all of it passes the right requirements: Provisional ATO,” she declared 

She said that her memo authorizing the new process was being signed out “today.” As acting CIO, Arrington sets department-wide policy for IT matters. 

She said the memo would be briefed out to “all the CIOs and [chief information security officers] in the building. It would be followed “in the next week or two,” by a Request For Information to industry to help build out the details. 

“I want the RMF eliminated,” she said. “I only have five things that I really care about. Did you develop what you’re doing in [a] secure by design [process]? How do I validate that? Are you working with zero trust? How do I validate that? [And, how are you doing] continuous monitoring?”