Day: September 12, 2025

• Lockheed Martin said the US government is interested in its F-35 “fifth-generation-plus” concept.
• The company wants to use research from its failed six-generation stealth fighter design.
• The CEO said there is “a very active engagement at an extremely high level” within the DoD.

Lockheed Martin said the US government is interested in its “fifth-generation-plus” idea for the F-35 stealth jet that would feature some technologies it developed for its failed bid to build the US’s sixth-generation fighter.

CEO Jim Taiclet said on Thursday that there is “a very active engagement at an extremely high level with the Department of Defense” about the upgraded F-35, and that “I expect it will be taken to the White House sometime soon, hopefully, to consider this kind of concept.”

Speaking at Morgan Stanley’s Laguna Conference, he said there is no contract yet, but that if the jet is kept under the Pentagon’s current approved plan, the souped-up F-35 would, over time, get near sixth-generation capability.

He said the new jet’s technology could include stealth coating, better weapons, and a more advanced engine, which are sixth-generation systems — shorthand for the West’s current cutting-edge materials and supercomputer-assisted designs. Fifth-generation systems, by contrast, refer to aircraft technologies developed during the 1990s and early 2000s.

The new jet would be considerably lower-cost than a sixth-generation jet, something Taiclet outlined at the event — an offering that could undercut the rationale for buying Boeing’s sixth-generation F-47 fighter. Shares of Lockheed stock dipped after the loss of its next-generation fighter bid in March, and have since risen about 8%.

Taiclet’s comments this week were the first indication of government interest, though US officials have not acknowledged any interest publicly. The Department of Defense, F-35 Program Office, and White House did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.

Taiclet first revealed the company’s idea for what he called a “fifth-generation plus” fighter in April, comparing the company’s planned upgrades to revamping a stalwart race car: “So we’re basically going to take the chassis and turn it into a Ferrari. It’s like a NASCAR upgrade, so to speak.”

He said the company would use its years of experience as a premier stealth aircraft designer and its tech from the next-generation fighter.

Lockheed Martin this year lost its bid for the sixth-generation F-47 to Boeing, in a move that dealt a blow to the company’s long-held dominance in the stealth fighter game. Lockheed said it was “disappointed” with the outcome.

But it soon announced its plan, with Taiclet saying the company’s aim was to update the F-35 so it could match 80% of the F-47’s capabilities for half the cost.

Taiclet’s comments this week were the first indication of government interest, though US officials have not acknowledged any interest publicly.

Taiclet said on Thursday that at Lockheed Martin, “we still think sixth-generation aircraft should be developed,” but that he believes the upgraded F-35 would be “incredible value” for the US, especially given that the sixth-generation program will take time.

President Donald Trump in May said he was interested in an upgraded F-35. But he described something that went far beyond what Lockheed Martin has publicly described: An F-35 that would have two engines, instead of the usual one. A former US Air Force pilot who was involved with the F-35 program described that idea to Business Insider as tantamount to building a whole new aircraft and likely to take decades and incur huge costs.

Taiclet said that the US could have around 1,000 to 1,500 fifth-gen-plus capable F-35s in the future, as two-thirds of the 2,300 F-35s that have been ordered but not yet delivered are bound for the US and could be upgraded with sixth-generation tech.

He said the government has “significant interest” in discussing aircraft modernization, “all the way up to the administration level, the White House level, and we’re in the middle of that with them, and we’re getting heard, we’re hearing back and it’s pretty active.”

But he said that if a contract is signed for the jet it may not be clear to investors, saying “the way to contract this will probably not be visible to folks because it will have so much classified content that it may not be disclosable. But I’m really quite confident that this concept has great merit.”

He said, “We have an opportunity to really do something very valuable for the country given its growing but limited, ultimately, defense budget. We can provide value at that level at that scale by integrating sixth-generation technology, digital and physical into our aircraft we’re already building, I think that’s really worth considering for the government.”

The fifth-generation F-35 first entered service in 2015, while the sixth-generation F-47, intended to be the US’s most advanced stealth fighter ever, may be operational by the end of 2029, according to the US Air Force chief of staff.

• Institut auf dem Rosenberg is a private, family-run, international boarding school in Switzerland.
• Rosenberg’s dorms have cherry hardwood floors and en-suite marble bathrooms.
• It costs over $200,000 a year, earning it a reputation as one of the world’s most expensive schools.

Switzerland’s Institut auf dem Rosenberg is known as one of the most expensive schools in the world — though the institute itself says it’s not hung up on that label.

“Is Rosenberg the most expensive school in the world? Possibly, but we don’t lose any sleep over this question, since frankly, it is irrelevant to us. We work hard to be the best boarding school in Switzerland and the world, rather than the most expensive one,” the school’s website reads.

The school, which has educated a prince and a Nobel Prize winner, is world-renowned for its facilities, high-tech campus, and top-of-the-line facilities that make living and studying at the school an elite experience.

Here’s a look inside Institut auf dem Rosenberg.

Institut auf dem Rosenberg is a private, family-run, international boarding school in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

The city of St. Gallen, located in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, has an estimated population of 70,000 residents.

The school was founded by Elrich Schmidt in 1889 and was known as Institut Dr Schmidt until the 1930s, when it was renamed following the death of its founder.

Rosenberg is located between Lake Constance and Alpstein in the Swiss Alps, and the area surrounding the school offers stunning views of the Alps as well as all the conveniences of city life.

“Clean air, temperate climate, and healthy natural conditions are ideal for studying and comprehensive development of the students,” the school previously wrote on its website.

The school was founded in 1889 and educates students from pre-school to high school.

The school is now owned and managed by the Gademann family, with fourth-generation Bernhard Gademann serving as the current headmaster and director of Rosenberg.

Elite Traveler reported that Gademann, who attended the school himself and went on to attend university in the UK before moving to New York, where he worked in the finance and technology space, took on the position after his father, the previous headmaster, died in 2009.

The school, which says it is “possibly” the most expensive school in the world, costs over $200,000 a year to attend.

The school costs an average of 165,000 CHF, or about $200,000, to attend each year.

“We work hard to be the best boarding school in Switzerland and the world, rather than the most expensive one,” the school wrote on its website in response to a frequently asked question about whether Rosenberg is the most expensive school in the world.

“Our award-winning care, school facilities, enrichment offerings, and the unmatched choice of academic options are very costly to maintain, but we have a deep commitment to provide the very best education for all the students in our care,” it continues. 

The school also mentions that it receives no government subsidies and does not accept donations, so it has a very limited number of scholarship opportunities.

Institut auf dem Rosenberg students hail from 50 different nationalities from all over the world.

Rosenberg’s strict student-privacy rules mean that the school can neither confirm nor deny the names of past alumni, though it has been shared that Karl Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern, and Mario J. Molina, a Nobel Prize winner, were former students.

The offspring of oligarchs and German billionaires are also believed to have attended Rosenberg, per previous reporting by Business Insider.

Rosenberg’s on-campus housing is made up of “art-nouveau-period villas,” per the school’s website.

The campus sits on 24 acres of private parkland and “carefully manicured gardens” surrounded by century-old nut trees.

Located in the heart of campus is Rosenberg’s golf training ground, which features a professional multi-hole putting green, hitting mats, and obstacles, including a sand bunker.

Rosenberg’s residences have cherry hardwood floors and en-suite marble bathrooms.

Female and male students live separately, though they share dorms with other students in the same age group. They also participate in on-campus activities and weekend trips. 

Rosenberg says that “unlike at many other boarding schools in Switzerland,” students can change boarding houses during their time there.

This policy allows students to change their living arrangements in order to live with friends.

The Rosenberg Health & Fitness Club features state-of-the-art training equipment.

The school also provides professional guidance on health, fitness, and nutrition courtesy of the school’s “team of expert trainers.”

The school also has a dedicated multimedia center.

The center features “purpose-built workspaces” for research and self-study and allows students to access physical books, thousands of e-books, and online publications, including university-grade academic journals and primary sources through JSTOR.

The science center is named after Nobel Prize winner and Rosenberg alumnus Mario J. Molina.

The science center features a professional laboratory and is “well equipped beyond regular school standards,” the school says. 

Molina, who grew up in Mexico City, began attending Rosenberg at age 11. He explained to the Nobel Foundation that he chose the school because “German was an important language for a future chemist to learn,” and he believed that a European education would advance his scientific career.

The Academy of Achievement reported that Molina went on to receive the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize in chemistry for his research concerning the decomposition of the ozone layer, which protects Earth from the harmful effects of solar radiation.

The school says it has a commitment to providing high-quality food to its students.

The school said its dining staff doesn’t use artificial colors, taste intensifiers, or thickening agents such as wheat flour in its dishes whenever possible.

“Ingredients are sourced locally as well as seasonally, and the production of a vast majority of the dishes is truly fresh, including bases for soups and sauces, so that processed food is reduced to an absolute minimum,” the website states.

Perhaps the most unusual facility on Rosenberg’s campus is the school’s SAGA Space Habitat and Future Park.

Rosenberg students collaborated with SAGA Space Architects in July 2022 to create a life-size, 3D printed “space habitat” that allows students to simulate extraterrestrial environments and living on Earth, per a press release.

The on-site habitat has two sleeping cabins on the top floor, a living quarters with two desks, and a workshop.

The workshop even includes a charging station for the Spot robot dog. Rosenberg said in a press release that it was the first and only school in Switzerland to own one.