Trump floats possible new F-55 warplane and F-22 upgrade

By Andrew Mills, Nayera Abdallah, Tim Hepher and Mike Stone

DOHA (Reuters) -The United States is examining improvement of a twin-engined warplane to beryllium known arsenic the F-55, arsenic good arsenic an upgrade to its Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor called the F-22 Super, U.S. President Donald Trump said connected Thursday.

Trump was speaking astatine a gathering of concern leaders including the heads of Boeing and GE Aerospace successful Doha, a time aft announcing a drawstring of concern deals including an bid from Qatar for 160 Boeing commercialized jets.

Trump referred to the F-55 some arsenic an upgrade to the Lockheed F-35 and a caller improvement successful comments that appeared to echo speech by the U.S. arms elephantine of a "best value" alternative, aft losing retired to Boeing to regenerate the F-22 superfighter.

He besides highlighted the relation of the caller aerial dominance level called the F-47, precocious awarded to Boeing, and said the United States was simultaneously looking astatine upgrading the stealth combatant that it is designed to replace, the F-22.

"We're going to bash an F-55 and - I think, if we get the close price, we person to get the close terms - that'll beryllium 2 engines and a ace upgrade connected the F-35, and past we're going to bash the F-22," Trump said.

"I deliberation the astir beauteous combatant pitchy successful the satellite is the F-22 but we're going to bash an F-22 Super and it'll beryllium a precise modern mentation of the F-22 combatant jet," helium said.

"We're going to beryllium going with it beauteous quickly," helium added.

Trump past period awarded Boeing the declaration for the F-47 - a replacement for the Lockheed F-22 stealth combatant featuring a crewed craft flanked by a cohort of drones and seen arsenic America's astir precocious oregon sixth-generation fighter.

Lockheed Martin, which mislaid retired to Boeing successful that Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) contention and was dropped from a abstracted contention for a caller U.S. Navy stealth jet, has said it is present looking astatine plans for a "fifth-generation-plus" fighter.

CEO James Taiclet told analysts past period that Lockheed was looking astatine ways of applying exertion developed for its losing bid for the F-47 declaration to the F-35, delivering 80% of the capableness for fractional the cost.

"We're fundamentally going to instrumentality the chassis and crook it into a Ferrari," helium told analysts.

A Lockheed spokeswoman said "We convey President Trump for his enactment of the F-35 and F-22 and volition proceed to enactment intimately with the Administration to recognize its imaginativeness for aerial dominance."

'NEW AIRCRAFT'

Lockheed is separately successful the midst of a delayed exertion and bundle upgrade for the existing procreation of F-35 onslaught combatant to boost cockpit displays and processing power.

Analysts said it was not instantly wide however Trump's database of imaginable developments fitted into known programmes and spending plans, oregon the timing of existing programmes.

Agency Partners aerospace expert Nick Cunningham said the F-55 whitethorn alternatively notation to the F/A-XX programme, intended to regenerate the U.S. Navy's ageing Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fleet with the service's ain sixth-generation stealth fighter.

The Navy and Congress are battling with the medication to support the plans moving forward, Reuters reported connected Wednesday. Announcement of a winning bidder had been expected arsenic aboriginal arsenic March.

Funding of the radar-evading F-22, which is designed to combat different fighters, has been fiercely debated for years arsenic Congress blocked plans by the Air Force to velocity up retirements to absorption connected the adjacent procreation blueprint that became the F-47.

Any important upgrade to the out-of-production F-22 would beryllium costly, portion Trump's notation to 2 engines implies the F-55 would not beryllium a straightforward derivative of the single-engined F-35 but connote an ambitious caller platform, analysts said.

"Adding an motor to the F-35 makes it a caller aircraft," UK-based defence expert Francis Tusa said.

(Reporting by Andrew Mills, Nayera Abdallah, Tim Hepher, Mike Stone; Editing by Alex Richardson and Ros Russell, Kirsten Donovan)