Air Force Needs F-47, F-22 "Super" & F-35 "Ferrari"

By Kris Osborn, Warrior

There is a tactical and strategic reality which hangs in a delicate or even precarious balance with budget considerations related to the U.S. Air Force’s path forward with fighter-jet modernization.  While there is the ever persistent discussion about limited resources and the ultimate or eventual limits placed upon dollars to be spent, there is a pressing need for the service to address its short and long term national security needs. 

What this means is that, while of course there cannot simply be a budget without limits, the service and Congress would be well served to ensure that there is sufficient budget to prioritize the F-47, F-22 “Super” and F-35 “Ferrari.”  There are many variables informing this equation relating to short term defense requirements, longer-term necessities and threat driven circumstances. There is also a clear technological reality pertaining to the success with which existing 5th-generation aircraft can upgrade to sustain performance and potential superiority in a new threat environment.  

The F-47 will likely introduce a series of paradigm-changing technologies likely to surpass the limits of what an upgraded F-22 and F-35 can do, yet by no means does that render the F-22 and F-35 irrelevant. In fact the opposite is true, because both airplanes are well positioned to retain operational effectiveness in an increasingly challenged threat environment. The external configuration of both the F-22 and F-35 may not change much, yet comprehensive upgrades can make both of these platforms almost entirely new aircraft. 

Enhanced Stealth

Advanced coating materials and stealth surface upgrades can improve the ability of the aircraft to preserve and even improve its radar absorbent properties and electronic, sensing and weapons upgrades can vastly improve its performance capabilities. Both the F-35 and the F-22 are built with the technical infrastructure to upgrade substantially and modernize, so both can become stealthier, more lethal and equipped with longer-range, more precise sensing and targeting. 

Incremental software “drops” continue to enable the F-35 to expand its weapons envelope, as the platform will be able to fire the next-generation “Stormbreaker” air-launched bomb able to track and destroy moving targets in all weather from ranges out to 40 miles.  A software upgrade across the F-22 fleet years ago called 3.2b vastly improved its survivability and lethality by improving its AIM-120D and AIM-9X weapons.  Radar technologies and targeting on the aircraft can become longer range, higher resolution and more precise, and networking technologies can be strengthened, widened across domains and hardened against jamming and interference. 

F-22 & F-35 to 2060

What this amounts to is that, in both the near and the long term, there is a possibility or even likelihood that the F-35 and F-22 have the ability to achieve superiority over rival 5th-generation aircraft such as the Chinese J-20 and Russian Su-57.  Several years ago, the Pentagon made it clear that it intended to fly into the 2070s or beyond, and both the F-22 and the F-35 are positioned to fly alongside and greatly fortify and supplement the emerging F-47. This will be especially true if, as is likely the case, the F-47 is engineered with the ability to securely share information and “network” with advanced variants of the F-22 and F-35. 

Advanced variants of the F-22 and F-35 can greatly fortify the emerging F-47 platform and should by no means lessen or slow down the pressing need for the F-47. This effort is being correctly fast-tracked and is very much “needed” by the U.S. Air Force given the current and fast-changing threat environment. There is also a need to “mass” airpower in the event of a great power conflict, particularly given that China is believed to now operate hundreds of advanced J-20s.  The U.S. Air Force will need the F-47 as well as upgraded variants of the F-22 and F-35 for decades into the future. 

F-35  "Ferrari"

The concept of an F-35 5th-generation “plus” is both intriguing and realistic given fast emerging technological breakthroughs in the realm of AI, sensing, computing, avionics, software and mission systems.  

Lockheed’s F-35 “Ferrari” upgrade concept, now being considered by DoD, could potentially generate an entirely “new” aircraft in some respects without having to engineer and build an entirely new airframe. Software upgrades, the integration of AI and the addition of new long-range sensors and weapons could massively enhance the aircraft’s performance parameters without needing to change its external configuration.  There is much precedent for this, as numerous legacy aircraft have been upgraded and transitioned from decades-old potentially obsolete platforms into relevant, capable aircraft positioned to perform well in a modern threat environment. 

Upgraded Air Force Platforms

This has happened with great success in the case of the B-2, F-22 and F-15EX, as each of these aircraft have made generational leaps in performance due to upgrades and the integration of new avionics, weapons, sensors and command and control technology. The F-15EX 4th-Gen “plus” aircraft demonstrates the extent to which an aircraft can achieve generational leaps in performance without needing to be fully replaced with a new airframe. The re-engining of the B-52 is yet another instance of this kind of success, as the classic bomber has in recent years received a new internal weapons bay, communications equipment, weapons and electronics. Stealth aircraft such as the F-22 and B-2 have also been essentially redefined with new coating materials, computer processing, thermal management technology and weapons interfaces. 

All of this would seem to indicate that there is no reason a similar effort could not be successful leaping the F-35 forward a generation. Certainly an F-35 “Ferrari” plus might not have the advanced stealth fully horizontal configuration of an F-47, yet it could potentially integrate a wide sphere of 6th-generation technologies; this might include advanced applications of AI-enabled computing and sensing, heat signature reduction enhancements, the potential addition of lasers and an entirely new arsenal of next-generation weapons.

Software Upgrades

 In the case of the F-35, software upgrades have for years massively expanded the sensing, weapons and computing for many years. The now arriving Block 4 software drop, for example, will integrate paradigm-changing new weapons such as the Stormbreaker and AARGM-ER (Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile - Extended Range). The AARGM-ER brings new range and target sensing technology to the realm of attacking enemy air defenses and the Stormbreaker brings an ability to change course in flight with a datalink and track targets in all weather at ranges up to 40 nautical miles. 

The F-35 is already known to operate with a tremendous advantage over 4th-generation platforms due to its sensing, computing and targeting range. An Air Force wargame called Red Flag years ago was able to demonstrate that an F-35 can “see” and “destroy” groups of 4th-Gen aircraft at distances from which it could not itself be seen.  The F-35’s AI-enabled “sensor fusion” could potentially be brought to a new level of range, data integration, multi-domain networking and fire control interface. An F-35 “Ferrari” could use software and fire control upgrades to create interfaces for an entirely new generation of weapons, so a 5th-gen “plus” F-35 might be positioned to fire lasers and detect and destroy targets from even greater ranges with increased lethality. 

Manned-Unmanned Teaming

The F-35 has also been a pioneering aircraft in the realm of manned-unmanned teaming, as it has already shown in an Air Force Research Lab experiment that  it can exchange data in flight with the emerging Valkyrie drone. The idea of a “loyal wingman” wherein a drone or group of drones are controlled from the cockpit of an aircraft began with the F-35 and F-22, yet it is now a primary concept of operation for 6th-generation Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs). It seems there would be few barriers to upgrading or adjusting the F-35 such that it can not only network with the F-47 but also operate CCAs as well. 

F-22 “Super” 

Known for its SuperCruise speed, seemingly unparalleled thrust to weight ratio, aerial “agility”  and “first-shot, first-kill” mission mantra, the US Air Force F-22 has found a permanent resting place in the minds of Pentagon weapons developers preparing for the future. 

For many years now, the Air Force and Pentagon intent has been to sustain and fly the F-22 well into the 2050s and 2060s, in part because it continues to be so “upgradeable.” Today’s F-22 is an almost entirely different aircraft than that which first took flight nearly 30-years ago, as it has received new avionics, sensing, software, coating materials and weapons.  Its Mach 2.25 speed and superior thrust to weight ratio enable the aircraft to vector and maneuver in flight, something which of course contributes to its ability to prevail in air-to-air engagements and achieve air superiority overall. Some have argued that the F-22 remains the most superior air dominance platform the world has ever seen, suggesting it would prevail against high-speed Russian Su-27s and Su-57s and potentially outmatch the Chinese 5th-generation J-20 Dragon.

President Trump called for a next-generation F-22 “Super” during a state visit to Qatar earlier this year, comments which speak to the high measure of confidence his administration and Pentagon officials place in the aircraft.  There is great precedent for this, as the F-22 weapons capabilities were greatly enhanced across the entire fleet years ago through a software upgrade known as 3.2b; this improved the weapons interfaces and fire control for the aircraft and greatly improved the range and accuracy of the AIM-120D and AIM-9X air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. 

New weapons are also planned for the F-22, and software and computing upgrades could increasingly enable the Raptor to integrate new generations of air-fired weapons. The emerging high-speed, long-range, precise air-fired AIM-260, for instance, is planned for the F-22. This is significant as it could potentially enable the fighter to destroy targets with great precision from stand-off ranges and fire munitions capable of adjusting course in flight as needed. Upgraded and next-generation air-to-air weapons integrated into the F-22 will likely be hardened to operate in a contested electromagnetic warfare environment as well.  An F-22 Super would not only fire laser weapons as they become available for fighter-jet integration, but it would also be armed with hypersonic weapons as well. The Air Force intends to arm the F-22 with the fast-arriving MAKO air launched hypersonic missile. 

While there continue to be great advances in the realm of stealth and external configurations of fighter aircraft, such as that which can be seen with the F-47, many of the most impactful fighter jet enhancements can reside in the areas of computing, software, electronics and sensing. Essentially, an aircraft can become an almost entirely different platform without having to change its hardware to a large degree, due to rapid advances in AI-enabled computing, sensing and electronics. 

Aerial Quarterback 

 An F-22 Super would clearly benefit from new generations of sensing and transport layer communications technology. The Raptor has been described by pilots as an “aerial quarterback,” meaning it can connect intelligence data and targeting information with 4th-generation fighters and other aircraft. In recent years, the US Air Force has made great progress enabling secure two-way connectivity between the F-22 and F-35, something which has a substantial combat multiplying effect. New generations of an F-22 Super would likely build upon this and further streamline, organize and accelerate time-sensitive data sharing.  AI-enabled sensors, for example, could gather, organize and analyze critical combat information from otherwise disaggregated or separated systems. With networking enhancements, an F-22 could be engineered to fly in tandem with the emerging F-47, with both aircraft able to seamlessly share data in-flight. 

Concept of Operation

All of these improvements would doubtless reinforce the fundamental concept of operation informing the F-22 referred to as “first-shot, first-kill.” The intent with the F-22 is to ensure the aircraft can use stealth, speed and agility to deliver high-intensity lethal “strikes” upon enemy targets at the beginning of a military conflict. Years ago, the Air Force pioneered a critical “Rapid Raptor” program designed to deploy an F-22 anywhere in the world within 24 hours. The effort involved specific forward-stationing of F-22s and small maintenance crews in key strategically vital locations throughout the world. The Rapid Raptor program supports the fundamental concept of operation woven into the core idea of the F-22, something which an F-22 Super would build upon. 

Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.