US President Donald Trump has high hopes for the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance future fighter jet, after it was officially announced that Boeing had been awarded the coveted contract on Friday.
The sixth generation fighter, which is also known as NGAD, will replace the F-22 Raptor, and will be designated the F-47. In an announcement shared by the President, it was revealed that the jet will boast “state-of-the-art stealth technologies [making it] virtually unseeable,” and will fly alongside multiple autonomous drone wingmen, known as collaborative combat aircraft.
“It’s something the likes of which nobody has ever seen before,” Trump said in an Oval Office announcement alongside Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin and Lt. Gen. Dale White, the Air Force’s military deputy for acquisition, technology and logistics.
“In terms of all the attributes of a fighter jet, there’s never been anything even close to it, from speed to manoeuvrability to what it can have [as] payload. And this has been in the works for a long period of time.”
“America’s enemies will never see it coming,” he continued.
Reflecting on the game-changing aircraft, Allvin went on to explain what set the F-47 apart from previous aircraft, stating that it would be the “the most advanced, lethal and adaptable fighter ever developed.”
“We are not just building another fighter,” he said. “We are shaping the future of warfare and putting our enemies on notice.”
The contract to build the aircraft, which is named in honour of Donald Trump’s tenure as the 47th President of the United States, originally boiled down to Lockheed Martin and Boeing, after Northrop Grumman dropped out of the race back in 2023. However, after a hard fought battle, it was Boeing that walked away with the coveted contract on Friday.
“We recognise the importance of designing, building a sixth-generation fighter capability for the United States Air Force,” Steve Parker, the interim president and chief executive of Boeing Defence, Space and Security, said in a release.
“In preparation for this mission, we made the most significant investment in the history of our defence business, and we are ready to provide the most advanced and innovative NGAD aircraft needed to support the mission.”
Lockheed Martin also weighed in on the situation as they expressed their disappointment at the decision, but were still confident that they had “delivered a competitive solution.” It is currently unknown whether they wish to protest the award.
The F-47 will form part of a new NGAD ‘family of systems’ which also includes collaborative combat aircraft and cutting-edge sensors, weaponry and other technology that will allow it to connect with satellites and other aircraft more efficiently – something Air Force officials have said would be crucial to take on an advanced adversary such as China if the need arises.
The latest contract isn’t the only new aircraft in the works for the United States either, however, as DefenseNews explained that General Atomics and Anduril are also building their own CCA candidates the RFQ-42A and RFQ44A. These new aircraft will be the first iteration of drone wingmen, and have been designed to fly alongside the F-35 and F-47.
The intention is for the CCA’s to be relatively cheap to produce and run, while also being piloted with autonomous software to allow them to conduct recon, strike missions, electronic warfare and decoy missions.
While both CCA’s and the F-47 are still in development, experimental versions of the latter have been flying for the last five years, “flying hundreds of hours, testing cutting-edge concepts and proving that we can push the envelope of technology with confidence.”
Gen. Allvin is confident that these tests and rigorous developments will allow the Air Force to fly the jet before the end of Trump’s second presidency.
While the President has declined to reveal the cost of the F-47 due to security reasons that may reveal its highly classified technology and size, the US does expect to spend around £15.5 billion ($20 billion) on NGAD over the next four years.
Yet it’s not just the cost that has been considered, but also the potential revenue too, as Trump admitted he had left the door open to selling a version of the NGAD aircraft to allies in future – albeit a more “toned down” version.
“Because someday, maybe they’re not our allies, right?” Trump said.