By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
Boeing has beat out competitors to win the contract for what is likely to be one of the most expensive warplane ever.
On Friday, President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the announcement in the Oval Office – that Boeing will build a sixth-generation fighter jet that will eventually replace the Air Force’s F-22. The Pentagon has dubbed the plane the F-47 (Trump is the nation’s 47th president).
The initial contract for engineering and development is said to be valued at more than $20 billion. But that’s just the beginning. Over the next few decades, hundreds of billions of dollars are expected to be spent on the F-47.
“Compared to the F-22, the F-47 will cost less and be more adaptable to future threats – and we will have more of the F-47s in our inventory,” said General David Allvin, the Air Force chief of staff. The F-22 has a unit costs of about $143 million.
“America’s enemies will never see it coming,” Trump said. “Hopefully, we won’t have to use it for that purpose, but you have to have it. If it ever happens, they won’t know what the hell hit them.”
The Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance platform is designed to have a crewed fighter plane accompanied by multiple autonomous drones, known as combat collaborative aircraft. Allvin said versions of the fighter has been undergoing test flights for five years.
The NGAD is expected to become operational sometime in the 2030s. The system is designed to counter expected challenges from China in the coming years. Beijing has been ramping up its air defenses and is said to have been testing its own sixth-generation prototype fighters.
For Boeing, winning the contract is a huge victory. It’s military business has been in a slump – there have been issues involving delays and cost overruns with the KC-46 tanker and the T-7A trainer – and the company is due to shut production on the F/A-18 Super Hornet after 2027.
The Air Force originally has planned to award the first contract for the NGAD last year. However, the selection process was paused while the service reevaluated the design concept and also looked for a way to lower costs. In December, then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall decided to leave the decision to the incoming Trump administration.
