Trump outlines potential fighter jet plans in Gulf tour

Yousif Al-Obaidli, director general of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, accompanies US President Donald Trump on a tour of the mosque in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. (AFP)
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Updated 16 May 2025
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Trump outlines potential fighter jet plans in Gulf tour

  • President says US studying a twin-engined F-55 and upgraded ‘F-22 Super’

DOHA: The US is examining the development of a twin-engined warplane known as the F-55 and an upgrade to its Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor called the F-22 Super, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday.

Trump was speaking at a meeting of business leaders, including the heads of Boeing and GE Aerospace in Doha, a day after announcing a string of business deals, including an order from Qatar for 160 Boeing commercial jets.

Trump referred to the F-55 both as an upgrade to the Lockheed F-35 and a new development in comments that appeared to echo talk by the US arms giant of a “best value” alternative, after losing out to Boeing to replace the F-22 superfighter.

He also highlighted the role of the new air dominance platform called the F-47, recently awarded to Boeing, and said the US was simultaneously looking at upgrading the stealth fighter that it is designed to replace, the F-22.

“We’re going to do an F-55 and — I think, if we get the right price, we have to get the right price — that’ll be two engines and a super upgrade on the F-35, and then we’re going to do the F-22,” Trump said.

“I think the most beautiful fighter jet in the world is the F-22, but we’re going to do an F-22 Super, and it’ll be a very modern version of the F-22 fighter jet,” he said.

“We’re going to be going with it pretty quickly,” he added.

Trump last month awarded Boeing the contract for the F-47 — a replacement for the Lockheed F-22 stealth fighter featuring a crewed aircraft flanked by a cohort of drones and seen as America’s most advanced or sixth-generation fighter.

Lockheed Martin, which lost out to Boeing in that Next Generation Air Dominance, or NGAD, competition and was dropped from a separate contest for a new US Navy stealth jet, has said it is now looking at plans for a “fifth-generation-plus” fighter.

CEO James Taiclet told analysts last month that Lockheed was looking at ways of applying technology developed for its losing bid for the F-47 contract to the F-35, delivering 80 percent of the capability for half the cost.

“We’re basically going to take the chassis and turn it into a Ferrari,” he told analysts.

Lockheed did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Trump had revealed the name of this project.

Lockheed is separately in the midst of a delayed technology and software upgrade for the existing generation of F-35 strike fighter to boost cockpit displays and processing power.

Analysts said it was not immediately clear how Trump’s list of potential developments fitted into known programs and spending plans, or the timing of existing programs.

Agency Partners aerospace analyst Nick Cunningham said the F-55 may alternatively refer to the F/A-XX program, intended to replace the US Navy’s aging Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fleet with the service’s sixth-generation stealth fighter.

The Navy and Congress are battling with the administration to keep the plans moving forward, Reuters reported on Wednesday.


US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon

Updated 11 December 2025
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US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon

  • “The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said
  • Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured

WASHINGTON: Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.
The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.
“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.
The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.
The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.
“With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.
“The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.
Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured.
“But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.”
“We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”
AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.”