Lockheed wants to give the F-35 a ‘Ferrari upgrade’ to bring in on par with upcoming 6th-gen fighters

According to Lockheed Martin, the firm is now in active talks with the U.S. Air Force about fielding what they’ve described as a “Ferrari upgrade” for the F-35 that would see the jet changed significantly to adopt technologies developed for 6th-generation fighters. 

This concept was first proposed by Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet back in April after the company found itself out of the running for both the new Air Force and Navy stealth fighter programs. Taiclet claimed that a significantly upgraded F-35 could deliver roughly 80% of 6th-gen capabilities for half the price. The Air Force’s current F-35A’s ring it at right around $85 million a piece, while Boeing’s F-22 Raptor replacement, the F-47, is projected to cost as much as $300 million per airframe once production begins. That would mean Taiclet’s new upgraded F-35 would likely ring in at around $150 million a piece, or about $65 million more per jet than today’s Joint Strike Fighter. 

Taiclet says he’s actively engaged in discussions at what he calls an “extremely high level with the Department of Defense,” and expects to take his proposal to the White House in the not too distant future. 

Most improvements to this Ferrari F-35 would likely center around sensors, with Taiclet himself referencing improved infrared detection and targeting. The F-35, and many other fighters in the world, already boast the ability to target enemy stealth fighters via their heat signatures alone, but at this point, these efforts are all about extending those targeting distances and synchronizing target data across multiple sensors and even multiple aircraft. Today’s most advanced infrared search-and-track targeting systems are already said to be on the verge of beyond visual range. 

But Lockheed’s CEO also suggested that we could see changes to the F-35’s exterior design as well — which, it should be noted, would cost a fortune to execute, but could result in massive performance benefits. 

Last month, famed YF-23 designer, Darold Cummings, shared some designs he put together to show how the F-35 could be improved with airframe changes.

Sorted from least to most expensive (and therefore smallest to biggest departure from current F-35 designs), he proposed the F-35EX, which would stretch the fuselage by 60 inches and swap out the F-35A’s 35-foot wingspan for the F-35C’s 43-foot wing, which he’d move to the rear of the aircraft. He’d then remove the horizontal stabilizers from the tail and place them forward on the fuselage as canards, while eliminating the standing tails in favor of advanced thrust vector control. These changes would improve stealth, supersonic performance and allow for a 38% increase in onboard fuel storage. 

His second design, dubbed the F-35FX would go even further, adding a large clipped-delta-wing layout and eliminating the canards, allowing for a massive increase in internal storage for fuel and weapons, which by our math, would represent a 62% boost in fuel, and in turn, range. 

And finally, his F-35GX departs furthest from today’s design, moving the jet’s air intakes to the underside of the fighter and extending the delta wing all the way to the nose, creating a 70-degree chine that’s almost reminiscent of his own YF-23 design. 

However, as impressive as these concepts are, when we did the rough math for what it would cost to change F-35 production infrastructure to build these new jets, the non-recurring startup cost alone came out to between $10.36 and $12.2 billion, and could conceivably skyrocket up to $16.36 billion. And that’s before buying any of the new jets. All told, that shakes out to between $40 billion $56 billion to buy just 200 of these upgraded F-35s. That’s enough money to purchase anywhere from 440 to 620 unmodified F-35As. 

Feature Image: U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Poppler, a pilot assigned to the 4th Fighter Squadron, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, climbs into the cockpit of an F-35A Lightning II during exercise Bamboo Eagle 25-3 at Naval Air Station Lemoore, California, Aug. 6, 2025. The exercise challenges participants to integrate air and maritime operations, developing solutions to achieve superiority in contested theaters and multi-domain environments. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Zachary Rufus)

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