I Think we Might Know What We're Calling the F/A-XX
Could the Navy Wind up With the Fighter it Needs?
No, neither that pic above nor the one below is the F/A-XX, but it’s the closest we’ve got.
However, let’s review the decades-long Salamander Requirements List we have set out for the next Navy tactical aircraft.
All hail the return of the heavy fighter to the airwing:
Range: It has to fight in the Pacific and engage other enemies from a distance.
Payload: It must be able to carry at least a half-dozen AIM-174B Gunslinger, with a minimum of four of them internally.
As the drone wars over Israel have proven its utility again, it must have an internal gun.
Flexibility: Must perform air-to-air and air-to-ground missions like the Super Hornet it will replace..
Two Engines: We promised ourselves that the A-7 would be the last carrier aircraft with one engine. Then we accepted the F-35C compromise. Never again.
Two Crewmembers: Time and again, the utility of heavy fighters with a dedicated pilot and weapon systems officer in combat has been proven. Tell the accountants, 1310-Mafia, and the perma-shore-duty cadre to pack sand. The dual-crewed heavy fighter can bring a carrier airwing nothing else can. The F-35 will be the “light fighter” niche for the airwing.
Whatever we get, the “Bravo” model must be designated the EF-XXB. The Growler should fade away quicker than the Super Hornet. Its range is just way too limiting.
The USAF has stolen a march on the Navy, and yes the picture at the top is in USAF livery. OK fine, here is another image of vaporware that scratches the same itch but Navy.
…but take it for what it is. I’ve set the table, and let’s dive in to the topic.
How did I miss this back in May? Via Audrey Decker at DefenseOne,
In keeping with his penchant for shocking the defense industry, President Donald Trump today seemingly revealed plans to develop a twin-engine version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter known as the F-55, as well as an upgraded “F-22 Super.”
But former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said he was “mystified by Trump’s comments,” and analysts said that what the president described would be a highly challenging engineering endeavor on par with creating a clean-sheet aircraft. They also questioned the wisdom of spending scarce budget dollars on a twin-engine advanced F-35 when the newly announced F-47 is already planned to fill that niche.
“A two engine version of F-35 would be virtually a complete redesign,” Kendall told Breaking Defense. “It’s an option that was never presented and that we never considered, to my knowledge.”
I’m going to have to explain this to everyone, aren’t I? There is a lot to sort through.
“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 an F-35 has a single engine. I don’t like single engines,” the president said during a press conference in Doha, the second stop on the first international trip of his second presidential term. “Even this man [GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp], he’s the best in the world at engines, but on occasion, I know you won’t admit this, if an engine goes out it’s nice to have two, three or four. That’s why I like the 747, it’s got four. Today they’re getting very big and, a little more cost saving to have two very, very big ones. No matter how good, you know, they tell me, Larry, the engine will never go out. Well, I think it goes out on occasion, fairly rarely.
“We’re going to do an F-55 and I think, if we get the right price, we have to get the right price, and that will be two engines, and a super upgrade on the F-35 and then we’re going to do the F-22. I think the most beautiful fighter jet in the world is the F-22, but we’re going to do an F-22 Super, and it will be a very modern version of the F-22 fighter jet.”
…
Trump appeared to indicate that the “F-55” would be a two-engine version of the F-35, but such a modification would require a comprehensive redesign of the airframe, essentially resulting in a new airplane.
Trump’s comments come weeks after Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet said the company is working on an upgrade to “supercharge” the F-35 and deliver 80% of sixth-generation capability at half the price. But Lockheed is talking about better avionics and sensors, not a redesign to double the number of engines. How Trump’s proposed “F-55” coincides with Lockheed’s plans, if at all, remains to be seen.
It is also possible that Trump was thinking about the two-engine F-47, a sixth-generation fighter jet that Boeing won the contract to build in March.
Yet another possibility is that Trump was talking about the Navy’s F/A-XX, a different next-gen fighter jet intended to replace the F/A-18 Super Hornet. Boeing and Northrop Grumman are competing to design and build the F/A-XX, which is expected to have two engines. But the program is in limbo: some Pentagon officials want to delay the contract award up to three years to use the money elsewhere, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
I guess I’m going to have to be the Trump Explainer. A lot of people Mike Stone at Reuters may be taking things a bit too literally.
The timing of the F-55 announcement raises questions about how it fits into existing defense procurement plans and budgets. The Pentagon is already managing multiple high-cost aviation programs, including the ongoing F-35 program, the new F-47 development, and potentially the Navy's next generation carrier-based fighter jet - F/A-XX.
For Lockheed Martin, the F-55 concept represents a critical opportunity to maintain relevance in the high-end fighter market after significant setbacks in next-generation competitions.
Boeing's NGAD, which was just awarded and therefore is not in mass production yet, is expected to eclipse the F-22's capabilities, and so would F-55, the person said, making it a formidable fighter jet.
Ditto the folks Valerie Insinna and Michael Marrow’s at Breaking Defense talked to.
In keeping with his penchant for shocking the defense industry, President Donald Trump today seemingly revealed plans to develop a twin-engine version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter known as the F-55, as well as an upgraded “F-22 Super.”
But former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said he was “mystified by Trump’s comments,” and analysts said that what the president described would be a highly challenging engineering endeavor on par with creating a clean-sheet aircraft. They also questioned the wisdom of spending scarce budget dollars on a twin-engine advanced F-35 when the newly announced F-47 is already planned to fill that niche.
“A two engine version of F-35 would be virtually a complete redesign,” Kendall told Breaking Defense. “It’s an option that was never presented and that we never considered, to my knowledge.”
Sigh.
While I reserve the right to be wrong—let me tap into nine years of senior military staff weeniedom and a decade and a half working with pure-civilian entrepreneurs to help everyone get a handle on what is going on.
If I can put my eye-twitching pedantry to one side about our refusal to keep proper numbering conventions for our aircraft to the side—what the Navy now calls “F/A-XX” is going to be called the F-55. Even though the USAF has rolled out their new fighter first, the next U.S. Navy fighter aircraft will debut during the Trump administration—likely sooner than later. He’s said the next fighter will be F-55. As no other fighters are under development right now, so shall it be. Oh, no F/A-55 either. Just F-35 and save millions of keystrokes and tons of ink.
The F-35 talk is just what we discussed earlier this year; Lockheed’s desire to fold in technology from their failed bid for the NGAD/F-47 into an upgraded F-35. If that is done and produced, it will just—if we are logical about it—be a F-35D.
The F-22 talk is either simply confusion or the byproduct of a brief about incorporating some aspects that we see, or wanted to see, in the F-22.
President Trump has been briefed on the F-47 in details few have the clearance to see, possibly Lockheed’s options for what I called the F-35D above, and I would assume what we now call F/A-XX that—giggle—will almost certainly be called the F-55. His briefing likely discussed integrating technology from the F-22, F-35, and NGAD/F-47 competition into the Navy’s new fighter. He’s busy guy with what I think is the most active first six-months of any Presidency in my lifetime…so just assume he’s conflating a few things…but what should we boil down?
We are close to seeing the selection of the Navy’s new fighter. It will have two engines. It will be called the F-55. That is your responsible takeaway. That is all we know. Hopefully, the end product will align with the Salamander Requirements List outlined at the top of the post.
Some of the people quoted above give me the impression they are seeing roughly the same thing I am. Others who made comments like Kendall etc above? They either are vested in refusing to try to think about what Trump meant v. what he said, are excessively rigid in thinking, or they don’t function well in chaos.
It is actually funny to read in places.
Trump is notoriously, infuriatingly imprecise in speaking, literally everything he says has to be processed through context and can't be taken on its face. I think you did a pretty good job here.
Hey, I still got me 3 A-12 Flying Dorito shoulder patches. Hopefully {not a winning strategy!) the 55 will have better "parents" and adult oversight. And let's build more than 182. Buuuuut, we'll probably all be in the retirement home for one-eyed pilots before the 55 comes to fruition.