Trump Calls For Development of Twin Engine F-35 Variant

Speaking from Qatar on May 15, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to initiate the development of a twin-engine version of the F-35 fifth generation fighter. “We’re doing an upgrade, a simple upgrade, but we’re also doing an F-55. I’m going to call it an F-55, and that’s going to be a substantial upgrade, but it’s going to be also with two engines because the F-35 has a single engine. I don’t like single engines,” he stated. The president specifically highlighted the safety advantage that two engines provided. Should development proceed, it would represent the third fifth generation fighter program initiated in the United States or anywhere in the Western world, and could provide the U.S. Air Force and Navy with a heavier and longer ranged counterpart to the F-35.&nbsp;The F-35 was initially intended to be developed as part of a high low combination with the F-22, although serious shortcomings with the latter program prevented it from effectively providing such support to the F-35 fleet.&nbsp;<img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/16/article_68269dffce5339_08137889.jpeg" title="Chinese J-20 Twin Engine Stealth Fighter">A larger twin engine fifth generation fighter could potentially bridge key performance gaps with China’s own top fifth generation fighter the J-20, which is a heavyweight twin engine aircraft with over double the combat radius of the F-35. Investment in developing such an aircraft, however, could divert funding away from the U.S. Air Force and Navy’s F-47 and F/A-XX sixth generation fighter programs, which are also intended to provide twin engine long range aircraft. The F-35’s short range and small radar size are considered major deficiencies in the Pacific theatre in particular, ensuring a very high reliance on tanker support for aerial refuelling which imposes significant additional cost and vulnerabilities. The aircraft’s flight performance is also among the most limited of any 21st century fighter, ensuring that rival fighters such as the Chinese J-16 and J-20 can operate from much higher altitudes and at much greater speeds while retaining far superior manoeuvrability. A twin engine fifth generation fighter would likely perform much better in all these parameters, while generating significantly more energy for subsystems, including the radar and potentially in future directed energy weapons as well. As the United States and China both prepare to move their fighter fleets into the sixth generation eras, the development of a new fifth generation fighter would represent a highly unusual decision should Washington proceed to finance such a program.