Lockheed Won’t Protest NGAD Loss, Instead Pitches New, ‘Fifth-Gen Plus’ Version of F-35 Fighter

Breaking Defense – After losing out on the Air Force’s sixth-generation fighter program, Lockheed Martin’s chief executive has laid out a mandate to its aeronautics division: Create a “fifth-generation plus” version of the F-35 that can offer 80 percent of the capability of the upcoming F-47 at “half the price.” The world’s largest defense contractor will not protest the Air Force’s decision to award the Next Generation Air Dominance program to Boeing.