The F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II are two of the US Air Force’s frontline fighter jets. They’re often the first fighter jets to penetrate contested airspace, target air defense systems, and create a safe operating environment for other warplanes.
Even during Operation ‘Midnight Hammer’ in June last year, while the B-2 Spirit bombers got all the limelight, but they were led by the F-22s and F-35s.
They moved ahead of the B-2 bombers, conducting air superiority and air defense-suppression missions to clear the way for the B-2s to operate safely and effectively, and bomb the three Iranian nuclear sites.
Now, as the US prepares to attack Iran again, it has assembled a huge fleet of F-22s and F-35s in the Middle East. As many as 12 F-22 Raptors were deployed to an Israeli Air Force base in southern Israel on February 24.
Meanwhile, some reports suggest that an additional six F-22s departed from Langley AFB (US), possibly bound for the region.
Furthermore, nearly 50 F-35s have also been deployed in the Middle East, including on the two aircraft carriers, the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Gerald R. Ford.
This is in addition to the 48 F-35I Adirs with the Israeli Air Force.
Together, this will create a fleet of over 100 stealth fighter jets, which will be stacked against Iran’s outdated Air Force, largely consisting of legacy aircraft such as F-14 Tomcats and a few MiG-29s.
However, even though the F-22s and the F-35s are arguably the best stealth fighter jets in the world, the US is further upgrading both, enhancing their lethality.
Upgrading F-22s and F-35s
Lockheed Martin has shared details about how it is integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to help F-35 pilots spot hostile air defenses faster and more accurately.
Lockheed Martin is also trying to leverage AI to process more data to refine the battlefield picture generated by the F-35s sensors, and further improve the jet’s already formidable electronic warfare suite.
“Lockheed Martin recently flight tested an artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced Combat Identification (Combat ID) capability integrated into the F-35’s information fusion system. The successful demonstration, known as Project Overwatch, marks the first time a tactical AI model has been used in flight to generate an independent Combat ID on the pilot’s display,” the company said in a press release.
During the Project Overwatch test flight, which was conducted at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, a Lockheed Martin-built and trained AI/machine learning model resolved Combat Identification ambiguities among emitters, improving situational awareness and reducing pilot decision-making latency.
What it means in practice is that the F-35 pilot can process more data faster, differentiate and prioritize a set of adversary targets, and label them with the help of AI.
Embedding this advanced AI into the F-35’s mission system will help pilots understand threats faster, enabling them to make decisions more quickly, since operators don’t have time to synthesize data in combat.
This will substantially reduce the F-35 pilot’s workload, improve his situational awareness, and enable him to eliminate targets more quickly.
“Engineers then used an automated tool to label new emitters, retrain the AI model to learn the new emitter class within minutes, and reload the updated model for the next flight, all in the same mission planning cycle,” the statement added.
Jake Wertz, vice president of F‑35 Combat Systems at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, said that embedding AI technology in F-35 represents bringing sixth-generation technologies to a fifth-generation fighter jet.
“This is a demonstration of 6th Gen technology brought to a 5th Gen platform,” said Jake Wertz.
“Equally important is our ability to re‑program the AI model on the ground and have those updates available for the next sortie—an essential step toward maintaining a tactical edge in a rapidly evolving threat environment. ”
This is a crucial ability, as the air defense threat ecosystem is only set to get more complex going forward.
If an AI system can be embedded in the F-35 to record even unknown emissions and perform initial processing before they are analyzed in greater depth by system engineers, this would be a significant capability boost.
Theoretically, such an AI system should be able to record and analyze even unknown emissions and update its threat library on the fly. However, it remains to be seen how this system will perform in an actual combat situation.
It is worth recalling that in July last year, after Lockheed lost the F-47 bid to Boeing, the company announced developing the ‘Fifth Generation Plus‘ variant of the F-35 Lightning II aircraft, emphasizing that it would be a bridge to the sixth-generation F-47.
Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet said, “We did bid on NGAD, and we weren’t selected. But the pivot that we made is one we’re taking very seriously, which is how we create a bridge from today’s fifth generation to the sixth-generation NGAD, which might not be fielded for a lot of years.”
“We’re going to port a lot of our own NGAD R&D over to the F-35 and potentially over to the F-22 as well,” he added.
The integration of AI technology for data processing and threat identification seems to be the first step in that direction.
Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin also presented a scale model of the new-look F-22 Raptor fitted with stealthy external fuel tanks and underwing infrared sensor pods.
The integration of stealthy external fuel tanks will increase the range of F-22 Raptors without compromising their stealthy profile.
The new scale model, termed “Raptor 2.0” by Lockheed Martin, was presented at the Air & Space Forces Association’s annual Warfare Symposium.
While the F-22 Raptor has a ferry range of more than 1,850 miles with two external wing fuel tanks, its range without them, though not officially disclosed, is estimated at around 680 miles.
In the past, Raptor used non-stealthy 600-gallon tanks; however, their use is not realistic in highly contested zones such as the Indo-Pacific, where adversaries field advanced air defense systems.
While fighter jets usually jettison external fuel tanks to deliver their full spectral performance, Lockheed Martin is so confident in the stealth profile of these new fuel tanks that it expects the F-22 to enter direct combat, at least in some scenarios, with the tanks fitted.
Lockheed Martin also unveiled another set of stealthy pods equipped with a highly capable infrared search-and-track (IRST) system.
Notably, such stealthy pods were part of the F-22 Raptor’s initial design profile; however, they were later dropped due to cost constraints.
These IRST pods are useful for detecting stealthy targets, which could be critical in the Indo-Pacific theatre. China has already fielded over 300 J-20 stealth fighters and unveiled a carrier-capable stealth fighter, the J-35.
Furthermore, the US Air Force does not need to equip all Raptors with such stealthy IRST pods, as only a few F-22s equipped with them can share their data with other fighters.
The USAF has been testing these IRST pods with the F-22 Raptors at least since 2023. While long-distance images of F-22s flying with stealth IRST pods have been released, this is the first time a publicly shown scale model of the F-22 equipped with them has been shown.
In the future, other stealthy sensors and electronic warfare pods could also be designed for the F-22 Raptor.
Lockheed Martin might have lost the NGAD project; however, it is determined to bring some sixth-generation technologies to F-22s and F-35s, bridging the gap to the F-47.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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