The Pentagon is inviting the aerospace industry to help brainstorm the next era in U.S. air-combat superiority after the F-35 and F-22 fighters are retired, decades from now.
Reflecting the rise of drone warfare, an 18-month evaluation will consider both piloted and unmanned aircraft working in tandem with a network of weapons, sensors, electronic warfare and command-and-control capabilities, according to a memo by Frank Kendall, the under secretary of defense for acquisition, obtained by Bloomberg News.
The intent of the “concept definition” initiative is to start preparing the Pentagon for a time when today’s F-22 jets and the new F-35s still being developed reach the end of their service lives. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will sponsor the effort, providing $20 million to $30 million in funds, according to Kendall.
Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)’s F-35 “will provide a decisive advantage” in the “next few decades but it is not too early to begin consideration of the next generation of capability that will someday complement and eventually replace the F-35,” Kendall says in the memo.
In addition to soliciting ideas from contractors, Kendall asked the Navy and Air Force to participate in the effort.
The Pentagon assumes 8,000 hours of flying time for each of the planned 2,443 F-35s over 30 years. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have their own variations of the aircraft, with the last in the fleet to be produced in 2035.
F-35’s Cost
The F-35 program has been subject to criticism for its ballooning cost, which at $395.7 billion is up 70% from the $233 billion projected when Lockheed Martin won the program from Boeing Co. (BA) in late 2001, after adjusting for inflation.
The plane, known as the Joint Strike Fighter, has been the Pentagon’s only high-performance aircraft in development for a decade.
The Pentagon has spent $67 billion to buy 188 of the supersonic F-22 jets from Lockheed Martin. The military plans to spend an additional $11.7 billion to upgrade the planes, which were conceived during the Cold War as a fighter for the 21st Century.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, is the Pentagon research arm dedicated to maintaining the U.S. military’s technology edge. The agency, which played a role in developing the Internet, displays on its website the slogan, “Creating & Preventing Strategic Surprise.”
Excerpted from an article by Tony Capaccio. Click here to read the full report at Bloomberg News.