Designer of the YF-23 Black Widow II Has a Radical New Plan for F-35 Fighter

Key Points and Summary – Lockheed Martin may have lost the F-47 NGAD competition, but it is not done shaping the future of airpower. The company is floating a “Ferrari” F-35 concept—essentially an F-35D—with sharper stealth, more speed, greater electronic warfare punch and the ability to quarterback Collaborative Combat Aircraft drones. Former YF-23 lead designer Darold Cummings goes even further, sketching F-35EX and F-35GX concepts with stretched fuselages, canards and thrust-vectoring no-tail layouts.

-While such radical redesigns would be costly, incremental upgrades could deliver most sixth-generation features years before Boeing’s F-47 arrives, keeping the Lightning II relevant—and dangerous—well into the 2040s.

-We have included memorable original photos and video from our various visits to the only two YF-23 fighters, one based in California, another in Ohio, that the National Security Journal conducted this year.

Can the Old YF-23 Design Push the F-35 to New Heights?

Lockheed Martin is frustrated. The defense behemoth lost the F-47 contract to Boeing, and Canada has still not committed to a deal to buy 88 F-35s. But the company is not standing still; Lockheed Martin is always looking for ways to make the F-35 more relevant. It updates the aircraft continually to keep international customers interested and convince the U.S. Department of Defense and Congress to order more Lightning IIs.

Who Doesn’t Like a Ferrari?

The company has big plans for a highly upgraded version of the F-35. The proposed “Ferrari” model would make the Joint Strike Fighter into a near-sixth-generation fighter with improved stealth, higher speed, control of Collaborative Combat Aircraft drones, and more artificial intelligence in the cockpit.

Take the F-35 Into a NASCAR-like Garage for Supercharging

Another movement to supercharge the F-35 has been compared to the way race car teams tweak their machinery to deliver higher performance. This ( F-35 would see highly concentrated improvements to stealth and speed. It would deliver “80 percent of sixth-generation capabilities at half the cost.”

Does This Mean an F-35 ‘D’ Is on the Way?

Could such a future model be called the F-35D? That is certainly plausible. As it stands now, the F-35A is built for the Air Force, the F-35B for the Marine Corps, and the F-35C is flown by the Navy. An F-35D would be intriguing.

It might include greater Electronic Warfare (EW) capabilities, improvements to stealth, perhaps hypersonic weapons delivery, and maybe even lasers.

Beating the F-47 to the Punch

Lockheed Martin could even introduce the supercharged F-35 before Boeing finishes the F-47. The first flight of the Next Generation Air Dominance is scheduled for 2028. Some critics say it is already behind in development, while others believe the F-47 is chugging along fine.

But even if the 2028 date is accomplished, that leaves Lockheed Martin two to three years for F-35 upgrades. An F-35 with near-sixth-generation features could give Boeing a stalking-horse challenge.

One advantage that Lockheed has over Boeing is cost. Upgraded F-35Ds could be cheaper than F-47s developed from scratch. During the Biden administration, the Air Force estimated the F-47 could cost $300 million each. So far, the Trump national security team has been quiet about expenses.

At $300 million per airplane, the tally adds up fast. A souped-up F-35 could likely be delivered cheaper than that. Lockheed thinks the military should go bargain-shopping and focus on Lightning II variants with improved capabilities.

The F-35D might feature refashioned body contours and modified engine nozzles for better stealth. There could be an unmanned version, which might placate F-35 critics like Elon Musk who called for swarming drones to replace the Lightning II.

The F-35 “flying supercomputer” would be a drone quarterback, creating the manned-unmanned dynamic crucial to making the CCA a success. The F-35D would also improve interoperability and communication with NATO air forces.

YF-23 Designer Has Unique Ideas for His F-35 Iteration

YF-23 Image Taken at U.S. Air Force Museum. Image Credit: National Security Journal.

YF-23 Back End. Image by Harry J. Kazianis/National Security Journal. Taken back in July 2025 at USAF Museum.

A former designer of the YF-23 technology demonstrator has some ideas on how the F-35 could be supercharged. The YF-23, also known as the Black Widow II, competed with the YF-22 during the contest for what would become the F-22 Raptor.

Darold Cummings, lead designer for the YF-23, told Aviation Week in August that the F-35 had the kind of open architecture that allows it to be improved substantially.

“I believe one way Lockheed Martin can meet its goals is by employing two strategies,” he said. “One approach is to stretch the airframe to add fuel and improve the fineness ratio, as well as to increase lifting area by adding a canard or more wing area. The second is to use thrust vectoring to eliminate the tail.”

Cummings has dubbed his design the F-35EX. This would have a “canard fore-plane and multi-axis thrust vectoring.” Cummings even has a plan for what he calls the F-35GX, which would include further refinement of delta wings and diamond tails.

The designer admits these innovations would cost a significant amount of time and money. Potential F-35 upgrades would not involve such a drastic fuselage and wing re-design.

YF-23 Fighter at USAF Museum. Image by Harry J. Kazianis/National Security Journal.

Back of YF-23 Fighter. Image Credit: National Security Journal.

The Air Force is thus more likely to pursue an improved F-35. The technology is almost mature, although lasers are not ready, and it is not clear how the fighter would perform with the added weight from a directed-energy system. But the NGAD’s new stealth coating innovations could be shared with the F-35D.

This is an exciting time for the F-35. The Israelis used their F-35I Adir to great effect against Iran during the 12-Day War. F-35Is showed that the plane’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities could provide exactly the data needed for follow-on strikes by other airplanes.

The F-35I also used EW to jam enemy radar and stymie air defenses.

Having an F-35D is even more irresistible. The upgrades come down to time, money, and resources. Congress must be involved. The $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act was just passed by the House of Representatives this week.

Perhaps the Senate could kick in some funds to supercharge the F-35. This would make the Lightning II relevant for at least two more decades. Someday it could even reach international customers.

About the Author: Brent M. Eastwood

Author of now over 3,000 articles on defense issues, Brent M. Eastwood, PhD is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for US Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former US Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.