Lockheed Wants To Build An F-22/F-35 Hybrid For The U.S. Air Force

Two F-22 Raptors fly with two Norwegian F-35s in Norway. Senior Airman Preston Cherry

Marcus Weisgerber, Defense One: Lockheed Pitching F-22/F-35 Hybrid to U.S. Air Force

With a Raptor’s body and the JSF’s brain, the new jet would aim to answer the next decade’s Russian and Chinese threats.

Lockheed Martin is quietly pitching the U.S. Air Force a new variant of the F-22 Raptor, equipped with the F-35’s more modern mission avionics and some structural changes, Defense One has learned.

It is one of several options being shopped to the U.S. military and allies as Lockheed explores how it might upgrade its combat jets to counter Russian and Chinese threats anticipated by military officials in the coming decade, according to people with direct knowledge of the plan.

“You’re building a hybrid aircraft,” David Deptula, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who is now dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “It’s not an F-22. It’s not an F-35. It’s a combination thereof. That can be done much, much more rapidly than introducing a new design.”

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Update: Before 6th-Generation Fighter Flies, Lockheed Offers A Stealth Hybrid (Investors.com)

WNU Editor: Theoretically this project reads like a winner. But practically .... projects of this type have always encountered problems, delays, and cost overruns.