Defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin was left in the dust by Boeing’s exceptional sixth-generation aircraft: the F-47.
Last week, Boeing was awarded a contract to develop and build the sixth-generation F-47 fighter jet for the United States Air Force. It will be the centerpiece of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program’s “system of systems,” which will include unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
It will now be developed as part of the accompanying Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program.
“I’m thrilled to announce that, at my direction, the United States Air Force is moving forward with the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet… Nothing in the world comes even close to it,” President Donald Trump said on Friday from the Oval Office while announcing that Boeing had been awarded the contract.
However, Trump’s choice of words often involves off-the-cuff and contradictory statements was telling. “Nothing in the world comes even close,” which is noteworthy as the U.S. Navy is expected to award a contract for its sixth-gen fighter this week, with that competition coming down to Boeing and Northrop Grumman.
Trump’s words probably shouldn’t be read too deeply, but how would the Navy feel about the president suggesting “nothing” is close to the F-4 when that could include the eventual F/A-XX?
Both are likely highly advanced aircraft designed to fill particular roles. However, this month, Lockheed Martin was reportedly eliminated from the Navy’s program.
According to a report from Defense Industry Europe, “Lockheed Martin has been eliminated from the [Navy’s selection] process due to challenges in meeting the Navy’s radar and carrier landing requirements.”
Lockheed Martin Responds to Boeing F-47 Selection
Though the company has been silent since it was announced that it was dropped from the F/A-XX program earlier this week, it acknowledged that Boeing won the F-47 contract. The aerospace and defense giant reaffirmed its commitment to the sector.
“Lockheed Martin continues to work to advance critical technologies to outpace emerging threats and deliver true twenty-first Century Security solutions to our nation’s military forces,” the company said in a statement.
“We are committed to advancing state-of-the-art air dominance to ensure America has the most revolutionary systems to counter the rapidly evolving threat environment. While disappointed with this outcome, we are confident we delivered a competitive solution. We will await further discussions with the U.S. Air Force.”
Lockheed Martin Locked Out of the Competition
Given that Northrop Grumman is very much in the “bomber business” with the B-21 Raider and Boeing has been seen as the frontrunner for the carrier-capable F/A-XX, building on the success of the Super Hornet, it came as a bit of a surprise that Lockheed Martin is out of both programs.
“Lockheed Martin, which developed the F-22 and F-35, had been a leading contender for the NGAD contract. Its exclusion from the program marks a rare setback for the defense giant in advanced combat aircraft development,” wrote Dylan Malyasov for The Defence Blog.
Yet this setback has been a long time; Lockheed Martin is the only company to produce two fifth-generation fighters, the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II. The cost of those respective programs has been a target for critics, notably lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
But last week, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin also quickly suggested that the F-47 will cost far less than the F-22, which no doubt relieved Pentagon bean counters, who had previously expressed concerns over the NGAD’s costs.
A fair, more enormous strike against Lockheed Martin may be the ongoing delays with the F-35 Technology Refresh-3 (TR-3). Deliveries were halted for a year as the software/hardware upgrade’s development continued. Even now, the latest Lightning IIs aren’t considered combat-capable without that enhancement.
Finally, there is the mission-capable rate (MC rate), which the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned last year was just 52 percent for the Air Force’s F-35A, far below the 75 to 80 percent goal.
The watchdog group found that all three variants of the F-35 failed to meet the MC rate targets for six consecutive years. That was “despite the Pentagon spending more than $12 billion to sustain the stealth fighter jet and ensure it is ready for combat if the need arises,” as was previously reported by The National Interest.
Given these combined issues, it is likely not surprising that the Department of Defense (DoD) took another approach, locking Lockheed out of the sixth-generation fighter business.
About the Author: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites, with over 3,200 published pieces and over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author at [email protected].
Image: Shutterstock/ Christopher Chambers.
