In the biggest development for U.S. Air Force tactical air power in more than two decades, Boeing has been announced as the winner of the service’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) ‘fighter’ initiative. As the centerpiece of the NGAD effort, the new crewed sixth-generation stealth combat jet, now designated the F-47, is set to change air combat forever, with the Air Force hoping to begin fielding it in the next decade.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin had been facing off to build the NGAD combat jet, but neither company had formally confirmed it was competing. Northrop Grumman dropped out of the bidding process on its own accord to focus on other opportunities. Just the fact that the fighter component of NGAD is moving forward at all is news as the program has been put on hold for the better part of a year, with concerns over cost and relevance being examined. The Biden administration punted the program to the Trump administration due to this ongoing uncertainty.
The announcement was made personally by U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office today, alongside Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin.
The Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract for NGAD is expected to be worth approximately $20 billion, although, across the life of the program, the company is in line to receive hundreds of billions of dollars in orders. Each copy of the jet, once series production commences, has been estimated in the past to cost upwards of $300 million. That is if the original concept for the aircraft has not changed.
It’s worth recalling that, while the NGAD terminology is frequently used to refer to the crewed combat jet that will be at the center of the effort, the program of the same name is a much broader initiative. As such, it includes the development of Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones with high degrees of autonomy, as well as new jet engines, weapons, electronic warfare suites, sensors, networking ecosystems, battle management capabilities, and more.
The NGAD combat jet program evolved from plans for what was originally referred to as a Penetrating Counter-Air (PCA) platform, which emerged publicly in the mid-2010s. The PCA concept was an outgrowth of previous work the Air Force had done in cooperation with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). That includes the Aerospace Innovation Initiative, which was publicly announced in 2015 and produced at least one classified flying demonstrator design.
In contrast to previous fighter competitions, NGAD has been cloaked in secrecy from the outset. Indeed, for a long time, the Air Force didn’t even disclose which companies were in the running for NGAD.
However, the likely candidates were always going to be Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman — the established heavyweights in terms of U.S. combat aircraft manufacturers. As noted, Northrop Grumman removed itself from the running for NGAD in July 2023, as you can read about here. The firm is also highly focused on fulfilling the high-stakes B-21 Raider contract. The three defense contractors are understood to have flown up to three NGAD demonstrators — possibly one from each company, although this, too, is unconfirmed. The fact that a full-scale flight demonstrator for NGAD had flown at all was first revealed back in September 2020.
It’s also worth noting Lockheed Martin was reportedly recently dropped from the separate competition to build the U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX next-generation carrier-based stealth fighter, which is part of the service’s own (and somewhat confusingly named) NGAD effort.
In contrast, Boeing has recently suffered some notable setbacks in both its commercial and defense businesses. Trump had previously slammed the company over its contract to build two new Air Force One planes, which are running behind schedule. In the context of NGAD, however, the company’s entire future as a fighter-builder could be at stake. Notably, the company announced back in 2023 that it was going to shutter the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet line and indicated it would refocus in part on advanced combat jet efforts. The firm has made significant investments in its St. Louis, Missouri, facility to prepare it for sixth-generation fighter production. Boeing — alongside Northrop Grumman — is still in the running for the Navy’s F/A-XX. As for tactical jet production, Boeing is currently building F-15 Advanced Eagles and the Air Force’s T-7 jet trainer and will be for foreseeable future.
Lockheed Martin is already highly active in the fighter business, with its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in production for three U.S. services and multiple foreign countries and with manufacturing of the latest Block 70/72 versions of the F-16 also ongoing. It also continues to sustain the F-22 Raptor. Its Skunk Works advanced projects division is famous for pushing the technological envelope, especially when it comes to tactical airpower-related programs.
Trump’s Air Force NGAD announcement comes at a time at which the president has been seeking to cut costs throughout the U.S. government, including slashing tens of billions of dollars from existing defense programs. NGAD has been a significant source of uncertainty over the past year, having been put on pause in May 2024 as the service reviewed its requirements amid concerns about the affordability of the aircraft, capability needs, and shifting priorities.
Ultimately, it seems the service’s need for a sixth-generation fighter in a potential Indo-Pacific conflict secured the future of the program.
Envisioned ostensibly as a successor to the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter, the NGAD combat jet was always intended to provide airpower capabilities sufficient to counter near-peer adversaries such as China and Russia. Although the fighter remains highly classified, it’s widely assumed to be tailored to counter future high-end fights in the Indo-Pacific theater, in particular.
“We tried a whole bunch of different options, and there was no more viable option than NGAD to achieve air superiority in this highly contested environment,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel, director of Force Design, Integration, and Wargaming within the office of the deputy chief of staff for Air Force Futures, said earlier this month.
As such, the fighter will emphasize significant range and payload capabilities but will also boast a host of exotic features and subsystems, among them, broadband stealth, advanced electronic, and other ‘spectral’ warfare capabilities.
TWZ has previously looked in detail at what kind of performance the aircraft might have in the end.
Once again, the NGAD combat jet is intended to work within a broader air combat ‘ecosystem’ — one in which CCA drones will play a critical part. The NGAD aircraft has always been envisioned as serving, in part, as a forward drone controller and otherwise operating closely together with companion drones. Reflecting the combat role of the CCAs, the Air Force recently announced new ‘fighter drone’ designations for the designs that General Atomics and Anduril are currently developing in the first phase, or Increment 1, of the CCA program. Boeing now joins these two companies as they set about completing the development of a new family of air combat systems for the Air Force.
While there are still many questions to be answered about the NGAD aircraft, today’s historic announcement means we do now know, at least, that the Air Force’s sixth-generation stealth combat jet will be a Boeing product.
Stay tuned for full analysis and updates that we will post below.
UPDATE: 12:18 PM EDT—
The only image we have of the newly minted F-47 design shows the design from a head-on perspective. While limited in what it shows, some major features are clearly visible. Most notable are the wings.
We see a wing with a very high dihedral and downward swept tips. This immediately is reminiscent of Boeing’s famed YF-118G Bird Of Prey technology demonstrator that flew clandestinely out of Area 51 in the 1990s. Another loosely similar high-dihedral design has come into the picture more recently in the form of Scaled Composites’ Model 401 demonstrators. One positive aspect of this design element is that sensors and communications antennas on the bottom of the aircraft’s fuselage can maintain line-of-sight to targets even when the aircraft is banking at steeper angles.
The YF-118G proved out a number of technologies, including advanced stealth and tailless design, to new breakthroughs in manufacturing and even visual stealth. It was a far lower performing machine compared to what the F-47 is set up to be, but clearly lessons learned from Bird of Prey are very much alive in Boeing’s NGAD design. We will likely be hearing more about this historical linkage in the future.
There appears to be some sort of canard foreplanes visible in the image provided. These structures are usually not optimal for low-observability (stealth), although we have seen them in some artwork related to future NGAD-like concepts, especially from Boeing. Adding them would allow for better maneuverability and stability, especially for an inherently very unstable tailless design. We will have to wait and see if this feature is included in the final product or not. There is always the possibility that features are included in the concept art shown to throw off foreign intelligence.
We also see a very broad, shovel-like nose, which could house a very large radar array and a large bubble canopy. We don’t know if the aircraft will feature one or two crew. We see a single nose wheel, as well. Beyond that, not much can be concluded, including the jet’s inlet configuration, although the fuselage appears notably svelte, at least from this angle.
UPDATE: 1:00 P.M. EDT—
In the Oval Office presser today, Trump said he was “thrilled to announce” the NGAD fighter contract award to Boeing, describing the aircraft as “the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet.”
The aircraft has received the Mission Design Series designation F-47, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. F-47 was previously used for the World War II-era P-47 Thunderbolt after the designation system was revised in 1947. It may simply be a happy coincidence that Trump is the 47th U.S. president.
Trump noted that the F-47 “has been in the works for a long period of time,” and that the Boeing design was selected “after a rigorous and thorough competition between some of America’s top aerospace companies.”
“It’s something the likes of which nobody has seen before,” Trump continued, as he outlined the F-47 in broad strokes. “In terms of all of the attributes of a fighter jet, there’s never been anything even close to it, from speed to maneuverability, to what it can have to payload … The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built.”
Trump said he was confident that the F-47 “massively overpowers the capabilities of any other nation. There’s no other nation, we know every other plane, I’ve seen every one of them, and it’s not even close. This is the next level.”
As well as being “equipped with state-of-the-art stealth technologies,” which will make it “virtually unseeable,” the F-47 has “the most power of any jet of its kind ever made,” Trump claims. “Maneuverability … there’s never been anything like it, despite the power and speed,” he added.
Trump said that the F-47’s “speed is top, over two, which is something that you don’t hear very often.” This would seem to imply a top speed in the region of Mach 2.
According to Trump, an experimental version of the F-47 “has secretly been flying for almost five years.” This is in line with the announcement of September 2020, from Dr. Will Roper, then Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, that a previously undisclosed NGAD demonstrator had begun flight testing. Since then, it’s been reported that at least three NGAD-related demonstrators have flown.
The president also announced an aspiration to have the F-47 enter series production before the end of his term in office, which ends in January 2029.
“They’ve already built much of what has to be built in terms of production, including the sheds,” Trump said, in reference to investments in infrastructure at Boeing’s St. Louis, Missouri, plant.
As for the unit cost of the new fighter, “we can’t tell you the price, because it would give it would give way to some of the technology and some of the size of the plane,” Trump said.
Perhaps most surprisingly, Trump said that U.S. allies “are calling constantly” with a view to obtaining an export version of the NGAD fighter. He said that the United States would be selling them to “certain allies … perhaps toned-down versions. We’d like to tone them down about 10 percent which probably makes sense, because someday, maybe they’re not our allies, right?”
Having the F-47 cleared for export, even in a downgraded version, would be a significant difference from the F-22 stealth fighter, which the NGAD jet was originally schemed to supersede. Despite foreign interest, the F-22 was never approved for sale to other nations, due to the sensitive nature of its technologies. It will be intriguing to see how this issue would be resolved in the even more cutting-edge F-47.
Allvin, in his statement on the F-47, branded the new aircraft “the most advanced, lethal, and adaptable fighter ever developed — designed to outpace, outmaneuver, and outmatch any adversary that dares to challenge our brave airmen.”
Allvin also referred to a flight test campaign related to the NGAD fighter having been carried out over the past five years, noting that more than one X-plane has been involved, flying hundreds of hours.
“These experimental aircraft have demonstrated the innovations necessary to mature the F-47’s capabilities, ensuring that when we committed to building this fighter, we knew we were making the right investment for America,” Allvin said.
This test work has apparently resulted in a fighter that is very close to the series-production configuration, which should ensure it flies in this form during Trump’s administration.
The Air Force chief also provided an interesting comparison with the F-22, stating that the F-47 will cost less and be “more adaptable to future threats.” Furthermore, the Air Force will have more F-47s than the current fleet of just over 180 Raptors. Furthermore, the new fighter will have a “significantly longer range, more advanced stealth, be more sustainable, supportable, and have higher availability than our fifth-generation fighters.” It will also take “significantly less manpower and infrastructure to deploy.”
UPDATE: 1:30 PM EDT—
Another image we now have of the F-47 concept shows a very interesting and downright puzzling angle. We see that indeed this aircraft has a very broad shovel-like nose and its Bird of Prey-like wing dihedral is also apparent. The canopy looks quite wide as well and a better look at the fuselage is also seen here.
The overall design of the fuselage appears very loosely similar to Boeing’s X-45 UCAV demonstrators and it also has a superficial likeness to the NASA/Boeing X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research Aircraft.
The most puzzling part of this image is the canards, which look more like smaller forward root extensions here. We also see what appears to be a blockish intake on one side but not the other. This incongruity is curious, but as we stated earlier, the imagery could be altered in key ways to help throw off foreign intelligence.
We also have an official high-resolution image of the head-on view, which shows the canards more clearly. Here is what the Air Force said about the head-on image:
“Shown is a graphical artist rendering of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) Platform. The rendering highlights the Air Force’s sixth-generation fighter, the F-47. The NGAD Platform will bring lethal, next-generation technologies to ensure air superiority for the Joint Force in any conflict.”
We have a few answers but more questions at this point, which is not uncommon for sensitive aircraft reveals.
UPDATE: 2:15 PM EDT—
Statements are now coming in from some of the companies involved in the NGAD fighter competition, among them winners and losers in today’s announcement.
Lockheed Martin, the losing entrant for the NGAD fighter contract, has provided TWZ with the following statement:
“Lockheed Martin continues to work to advance critical technologies to outpace emerging threats and deliver true 21st-century security solutions to our nation’s military forces. We are committed to advancing the state of the art in air dominance to ensure America has the most revolutionary systems to counter the rapidly evolving threat environment. While disappointed with this outcome, we are confident we delivered a competitive solution. We will await further discussions with the U.S. Air Force.”
The last sentence of that statement would appear to suggest that some sort of protest against the contract award could be on the cards.
Meanwhile, engine manufacturer General Electric posted the following to X:
Earlier this year, Air Force contracts with General Electric and Pratt & Whitney had their ceilings increased to $3.5 billion, for the companies to continue work on prototype next-generation jet engines. This is part of the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program, which is focused primarily on developing new engines to power the NGAD fighter. The NGAD combat jet’s future is now an open question, but NGAP might also feed into other advanced aviation programs.
Today’s big winner is, of course, Boeing. As John Ostrower, editor-in-chief of The Air Current, notes, this is the first time that the company has won a contract for a clean-sheet jet fighter design. Otherwise, successful Boeing products in this field have been inherited from McDonnell Douglas, with which it was merged in 1997, including the F-15, AV-8B, F/A-18, and EA-18.
Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs has provided a few more details on where the F-47 program will go next.
Today’s contract award will fund the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase, which includes maturing, integrating, and testing all aspects of the F-47. This phase will produce a small number of test aircraft for evaluation, the Air Force says. The contract also includes competitively priced options for low-rate initial production.
UPDATE: 4:00 PM EDT—
Boeing has issued an official statement on its award, with the following quote from Steve Parker, interim president, and chief executive officer of its Defense, Space & Security division.
“We recognize the importance of designing, building, and delivering a sixth-generation fighter capability for the United States Air Force. In preparation for this mission, we made the most significant investment in the history of our defense business, and we are ready to provide the most advanced and innovative NGAD aircraft needed to support the mission.”
UPDATE: 12:00 PM EDT 3-22-25—
A couple things to follow up with now that the initial announcement day has passed.
First off, the DoD posted a high-resolution version of the F-47 flying render. We do see the canards oddly obscured by clouds, but they are there. Tough to say exactly what the final aircraft configuration will look like. Canards are a very interesting if not puzzling choice for many reasons, low observability being the biggest. We will be exploring this further soon. Also, as noted repeatedly above, how accurate or purposefully misleading these images are is unknown.
Air Force Chief of Staff, General Allvin, took to X to clarify why the NGAD tactical jet got its strange designation:
“The F-47 designation was chosen in consultation with @secdef & carries multiple significant meanings. It honors the legacy of the P-47, whose contributions to air superiority during WW2 remain historic Also, the number pays tribute to the founding year of our incredible @usairforce, while also recognizing the 47th @POTUS’s pivotal support for the development of the world’s FIRST sixth-generation fighter.”
We also want to highlight the similarities between what we are seeing of this new aircraft and McDonnell Douglas Phantom Works (now Boeing) X-36 subscale demonstrator from the 1990s. This aircraft was used to prove-out tailless fighter design. The canard arrangement, canopy and the nose are certainly similar. We will have more on this in a future post.
UPDATE: 2:18 AM EDT 3-23-25—
We have new info on two x-planes that were flown as part of the genesis of the F-47, one built by Boeing and one by Lockheed Martin. Read about it in our new article here.
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com and tyler@twz.com