Donald Trump has awarded Boeing a multi-billion dollar contract to build the US’ new sixth-generation fighter jet, hailing it as the “most lethal aircraft ever built”. The 47th President said the aircraft will be known as the F-47, describing it as a “beautiful number” but that the name was picked by generals.
Making the announcement in the White House, Mr Trump claimed the aircraft is “something the likes of which nobody has ever seen before” and that “nothing in the world even comes close to it”. He said: “In terms of all of the attributes of a fighter jet, there’s never been anything even close to it, from speed to manoeuvrability to what it can have, to payload.” He added: “This plane has produced numbers no one has ever seen before.
“The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built.”
Mr Trump also said an experimental version of the “next level” aircraft has secretly been flying for almost five years.
The aircraft, known as Next Generation Air Dominance, will replace the US Air Force’s F-22 Raptors built by Lockheed Martin.
The initial contract to proceed with production on a version for the air force version is worth an estimated $20 billion (more than £15 billion).
The manned jet is expected to work alongside drones designed to be able to penetrate enemy air defences.
“We’re confident it massively overpowers the capabilities of any other nation,” Mr Trump said as he hailed what the jet offers.
“The F-47 is equipped with state of the art stealth technologies – virtually unseeable – and unprecedented power. The most power of any jet of its kind ever made. Manoeuvrability, likewise, there’s never been anything like it. Its speed is top.”
He added enemies “will never see it coming”.
“Hopefully we won’t have to use it for that purpose but you have to have it and if it ever happens, they won’t know what the hell hit them,” the President said.
Critics have questioned the cost and the necessity of the program as the Pentagon is still struggling to fully produce its current most advanced jet, the F-35 – an aircraft used by nations across the globe, including the UK.
In addition, the Pentagon’s future stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider, will have many of the same cutting-edge technologies in advanced materials, AI, propulsion and stealth. With drone and space warfare becoming increasingly important, Dan Grazier, a military procurement analyst, questions whether “another exquisite manned fighter jet really is the right platform going forward”.
Few details of what the secretive aircraft’s design have been released.
The UK is working alongside Japan and Italy to develop a sixth-generation stealth fighter under the Global Combat Air Programme.