Lockheed CEO Announces Option For Unmanned F-35 Operations: Pitches ‘5+ Generation’ Stealth Upgrades

<p >Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet has stated that a future variant of the F-35 fifth generation fighter could have the ability to fly missions without its pilot, which would mark a major shift in the program that could potentially allow services such as the U.S. Air Force to better manage issues of pilot shortages. “We could make the F-35 pilot optional over a relatively modest time frame based on a lot of the development we’ve done” for sixth-generation fighters, Taiclet said on May 28, adding: “we feel like within two to three years, we could have a meaningful increase of capability for the F-35 by porting some of these technologies over.” HIs statement was made at a time when the firm is increasingly looking for ways to stimulate the Pentagon’s interest in the F-35, which has become Lockheed Martin’s sole manned stealth program. Following serious criticisms of its handing of the F-22 and F-35 programs, the firm’s bid to produce the B-21 next generation stealth bomber failed in 2015. The firm was more recently in early March <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/lockheed-sixth-generation-fighter-design-rejected-navy" >excluded from competing</a> for primary contracts the Navy’s F/A-XX next generation fighter, and before it saw its bid to produce the Air Force’s F-47 next generation fighter <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/boeing-selected-develop-f47-sixth-generation-fighter-turning-point" >similarly fail</a> on March 21. Boeing was selected as the primary contractor for the F-47, while Northrop Grumman was awarded contracts for the B-21 and is expected to similarly be selected for the F/A-XX. </p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/29/article_6838730cceb578_57769889.jpeg" title="Sixth Generation Fighter Concept Art By Lockheed Martin Before Bid Failures"></p><p >With no sixth generation fighter or bomber contracts likely to be awarded, Lockheed Martin has increasingly emphasised extent of its potential to enhance the F-35, including through the integration of a range of sixth generation level technologies onto the aircraft. Taiclet emphasised that an enhanced ‘5+ generation’ F-35 could be reshaped for superior stealth capabilities and integrate new radar absorbent coatings to bridge the capability gap with new sixth generation fighters. This has become particularly critical as China’s <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/china-unveiled-stealthiest-fighter-sixth-generation" >unveiling</a> of two new sixth generation fighters in December 2024 already at flight prototype stages <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/chinese-sixth-generation-cut-pentagon-demand-f35s-lockheed" target="_blank">raised serious questions</a> regarding the future viability of the F-35 in Pacific War scenarios. The CEO added: “There have been some adjustments or learnings, I’ll say, on what we call the outer mold line, which is the actual shape of the aircraft itself, especially with regard to engine inlets and outflows of nozzles, that we might be able to again improve on the F 35 without redesigning it.”</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/29/article_683874bd7c8402_81073815.jpg" title="U.S. Marine Corps F-35B (Marines/ Brian Burdett)"></p><p >Taiclet cautioned that efforts to enhance the F-35 needed to be made incrementally, “because you cannot introduce too much new equipment or too much new software at once, necessarily without interrupting the production flow.” The Pentagon notably rejected one of the most ambitious programs to modernise the fighter in 2023, namely the Adaptive Engine Transition Program which had been intended to provide a clean sheet new powerplant for the F-35 which would very significantly increase its range, thrust/weight ratio and the power available for onboard systems. Lockheed Martin at the time strongly supported the engine program, which critics from the engine firm Pratt and Whitney argued was part of an effort to stretch the F-35’s production time by trying to make the fighter competitive in the sixth generation era. Pentagon interest in modernising the F-35 could increase in future should the F-47 or F/A-XX programs face unexpected delays or performance issues, mirroring its <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/usaf-f16s-20yrs-f35-resume" target="_blank">increased interest</a> in enhanced F-15s and F-16s when the F-22 and F-35 faced their own major issues.</p>