NGAD: Pentagon Aims to Avoid F-35 Mistakes with F-22 Succession Plan

By Maya Carlin, Warrior Contributor, Weapons

The U.S. Air Force announced last week that it has officially begun the search for a design partner in its Next Generation Air Dominance project, or NGAD, which aims to develop a successor to the F-22 Raptor.

While the F-22 is unquestionably the best air superiority platform in the skies, the Air Force recognizes that consistent advances in technology will eventually render it obsolete.

To that end, it is beginning the process of replacement, soliciting secret bids from contractors. It hopes to finish a deal in 2024. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall noted that the service is focused on avoiding mistakes made during the development of the F-35.

Late and Over Budget: F-35 Woes

In the years between winning the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) bid in 2001 and its first operational deployment in 2018, the F-35 program suffered numerous delays and cost overruns that threatened at times to put an end to the project. These problems arose primarily from two aspects of the program: Total System Performance (TSP) and concurrency.

Broadly, TSP gave the contractor, Lockheed Martin, much greater flexibility in the oversight and execution of F-35 design and production. The idea was to eliminate redundancies and streamline efficiency by using commercial practices during the acquisition process. In practice, the lack of government oversight disincentivized good development practices, driving up costs and delaying deliveries.

Video Above: Innovation & The Future of War