The Pentagon claims the next fighter plane the Air Force will acquire from Boeing will have penetrating and stealth capabilities that are significantly superior to its present fleet, making it indispensable in the event of a confrontation with China, as President Trump declared on Friday.
An upcoming fleet of drone aircraft, codenamed NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance), will be able to breach China’s and other possible adversaries’ air defenses thanks to the manned jet’s leadership. An estimated $20 billion is the value of the initial contract to move on with manufacturing on a variant for the Air Force.
At a White House ceremony attended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other Air Force officials, the 47th president grinned as he announced the award and revealed the new fighter’s name: the F-47.
The Air Force chief of staff, General David Allvin, declared, “We’re going to write the next generation of modern aerial warfare with this.” Furthermore, Hegseth stated that the upcoming fleet “sends a very clear, direct message to our allies that we’re not going anywhere.”
Since the Pentagon is still having trouble producing the F-35, its most sophisticated fighter, critics have questioned the program’s usefulness and its expense. The F-35 is projected to cost taxpayers over $1.7 trillion throughout its lifetime. Furthermore, the B-21 Raider, the Pentagon’s next stealth bomber, will have several state-of-the-art innovations in advanced materials, artificial intelligence, propulsion, and stealth.
The United States and many other allies have received over 1,100 F-35s.
Additionally, a fleet of 100 B-21 stealth bombers, with a total estimated cost of $130 billion, is also in the works. Test flights of the first B-21 aircraft have commenced.
“Another exquisite manned fighter jet really is the right platform going forward,” asks military procurement analyst Dan Grazier, who worries that emerging drone and space warfare would be at the heart of any conflict with China. Twenty billion dollars is “just seed money,” according to Grazier, who heads the Stimson Center’s national security reform program. Hundreds of billions of dollars will be the final tally in the future.
There have been little public specifics on the new NGAD fighter’s design, although Trump has stated that prototypes have been flying for the past five years. A flat, tail-less plane with a pointed nose has been depicted in renderings by Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
According to an anonymous Air Force source who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to disclose more specifics about the pick, the decision to go with Boeing was based on an independent review. Boeing has been under significant pressure from Trump due to financial overruns and development delays with Air Force One. “Best overall value to the government” was still found to be the Boeing bid, according to the official.
The exact number of planes that will be manufactured is unknown at this time. Allvin, on the other hand, said in a statement that production of the F-47 will outstrip that of the F-22, the sophisticated fighter plane it would replace. Approximately 180 F-22 fighter planes are currently operational.
Boeing and Northrop Grumman are still competing for a Navy contract involving their respective NGAD fighter versions.
Frank Kendall, the Air Force secretary under the Biden administration, put the NGAD program on hold last year to assess if the planes were still necessary or if the program, which had been planned in 2018, needed to be updated to account for recent advancements in warfare.
Think tanks and academics came to the conclusion that NGAD was still necessary after comparing the two scenarios of a battle with China, one with and one without it. A defense official, who wished to remain anonymous in order to discuss the decision-making process, claimed that Kendall subsequently handed the choice of fighter aircraft manufacturer to the soon-to-be Trump administration.
A different degree of low observability will be introduced by NGAD, according to the official. Because of its significantly greater range compared to the F-35 and other fighter planes now in service, it will also need less refueling. According to the person, the Pentagon is now working on improving the aircraft’s artificial intelligence in preparation for an unmanned version of NGAD.
