Boeing has secured the EMD contract to advance the development of its F-47 design for the NGAD program. Here is a summary of the key details released so far.
After months of uncertainty, Boeing was finally awarded the contract for the development of the U.S. Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance manned fighter. U.S. President Donald Trump, together with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and U.S. Air Force Chief Gen. David Allvin, made the announcement from the Oval Office, describing the new F-47 as the world’s first sixth generation fighter.
“I’m thrilled to announce that, at my direction, the United States Air Force is moving forward with the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet,” said President Trump during a press briefing at the White House. “Nothing in the world comes even close to it, and it’ll be known as the F-47.”
🇺🇸 THE F-47 🇺🇸
‘The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built.’ – @POTUS pic.twitter.com/KqgOknFM8s
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 21, 2025
During the announcement, two computer-generated images of the new fighter jet were also shown. The selection of Boeing marks a major milestone in the advancement of air superiority, as it is set to change the world of air combat as we know it, with unprecedented range, survivability, lethality and adaptability.
“The Next Generation Air Dominance Platform (the F-47) contract is a monumental leap forward in securing America’s air superiority for decades to come,” said Gen. Allvin during the briefing for the announcement. “This contract reaffirms our commitment to maintaining the United States’ position as the world’s most dominant Air Force, under the direction and leadership of our Commander in Chief, President Trump, and Secretary of Defense Hegseth.”
From the legacy of yesterday to the future of combat, your @USAirForce will continue to own the skies with the world’s first 6th-generation fighter jet: the F-47. pic.twitter.com/TcFHEdEbGq
— General David Allvin (@OfficialCSAF) March 21, 2025
The reactions
Few hours after the announcement, Boeing released a statement to address the award of the contract for the F-47. The importance of the event resides not only into the F-47 being the first sixth generation fighter jet, but also into the fact that this is the first Boeing clean-sheet fighter design to be selected, as the previous aircraft produced by the company, such as the F-15EX, have been inherited from McDonnell Douglas after the merge in 1997.
“We recognize the importance of designing, building and delivering a 6th-generation fighter capability for the United States Air Force,” said Steve Parker, interim president and chief executive officer, Boeing Defense, Space & Security. “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.”
The other contender for the NGAD contract was Lockheed Martin, which released a statement to acknowledge the outcome of the competition. It is unclear if the company is planning to protest the decision. Should that be the case, it would add months to the timeline until the Government Accountability Offices reviews the documents and rules out its decision.
“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,” said the company. ”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.”
Although the selection of the winning design for the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program has not been made yet, General Electric Aerospace released a statement for the NGAD announcement. The company’s XA102 or Pratt & Whitney’s XA103 engines would power the F-47 in future.
A statement from GE Aerospace on today’s Next Generation Air Dominance Program Announcement: pic.twitter.com/hKtt25sM7D
— GE Aerospace (@GE_Aerospace) March 21, 2025
What we know from the briefing
During the announcement briefing, neither President Trump nor Gen. Allvin provided specific details, not even 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. The President was reportedly briefed about NGAD and its capabilities recently, when both the Air Force and Navy presented to him their next-generation fighter programs.
“It’s something the likes of which nobody has seen before,” Trump said. “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.”
In addition to being “equipped with state-of-the-art stealth technologies” to make it “virtually unseeable,” Trump said the F-47 has “the most power of any jet of its kind ever made,” later suggesting a maximum speed in excess of Mach 2. The F-35 Lightning II is currently considered the fighter with the most powerful engine, rated at 43,000 lbs of thrust.
The engine that will equip the F-47 is unknown at this time, as a winning design for the NGAP program has not been chosen yet. Both GE’s XA102 and P&W’s XA103 feature three-stream adaptive cycle designs for increased fuel efficiency and cooling or additional thrust and performance, depending on the situation.
Trump further added: “Maneuverability, there’s never been anything like it, despite the power and speed.” Although this is highly speculative, this could imply that, even if the Air Force focused on Beyond Visual Range combat with the new aircraft, a good degree of maneuverability was still included in case the F-47 ever needs to get up close and personal with an opponent.
Moving away from the capabilities of the aircraft, Trump said that “an experimental version of the plane has secretly been flying for almost 5 years.” This would be in line with the announcement made in 2020 by Dr. Will Roper, then Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, who mentioned that an NGAD demonstrator was already flying.
Furthermore, Trump appeared to acknowledge that the development might move at a fast pace, mentioning that “they’ve already built much of what has to be built in terms of production, including the sheds.” This appears to be a reference to Boeing’s recent $1.8 billion investment on a new 1.1 million square-foot manufacturing center, which the company defined as an advanced combat aircraft facility, although it is expected to be complete by 2026.
Trump even mentioned that he has hope the F-47 could enter series production and be fielded before the end of its mandate as President, which would happen in 2029. While this might seem ambitious, the U.S. Air Force already planned to have the aircraft in service in the 2030s.
Notably, the President talked about exporting the F-47, saying that U.S. allies “are calling constantly” to acquire the aircraft, hinting at “toned-down versions” for export. The F-22 Raptor, which the F-47 is expected to replace, attracted interest from foreign nations, but its export has never been approved due to the sensitive nature of its technologies, not even in downgraded variants.
The designation was also a point of discussion, not only for the official name not yet announced, but also for the number, as someone noticed the designation may come from Trump being the 47th President of the US, something later confirmed:
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 (2/2). https://t.co/wjBynCSejr
— General David Allvin (@OfficialCSAF) March 21, 2025
It should be noted, however, that an F-47 already existed in the past, as the World War II-era P-47 Thunderbolt used that designation once the new Mission Design Series were approved in 1947.
The statement from the CSAF
In a statement on the contract award, Gen. Allvin provided few insights into NGAD, defining it “a monumental leap forward in securing America’s air superiority for decades to come.”
“With the F-47, we are not just building another fighter – we are shaping the future of warfare and putting our enemies on notice,” said Allvin. “This platform will be the most advanced, lethal, and adaptable fighter ever developed – designed to outpace, outmaneuver, and outmatch any adversary that dares to challenge our brave Airmen.”
In December 2024, China unofficially unveiled two new aircraft designs which are undergoing flight testing. Chinese sources defined at least one of them as the world’s first sixth generation aircraft, although the U.S. are now disputing that definition.
“Despite what our adversaries claim, the F-47 is truly the world’s first crewed sixth-generation fighter, built to dominate the most capable peer adversary and operate in the most perilous threat environments imaginable,” said Gen. Allvin. The reason for this resides in the flight testing of the demonstrators used for the NGAD program.
“For the past five years, the X-planes for this aircraft have been quietly laying the foundation for the F-47 — flying hundreds of hours, testing cutting-edge concepts, and proving that we can push the envelope of technology with confidence,” added Allvin. “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.”
The General further said that the service aims to prove that it can “field this capability faster than ever before,” and ultimately “the F-47 will fly during President Trump’s administration.” He further elaborated saying that “the F-47 has unprecedented maturity” at this stage of the program.
“While the F-22 is currently the finest air superiority fighter in the world, and its modernization will make it even better, the F-47 is a generational leap forward,” explained the General. “The maturity of the aircraft at this phase in the program confirms its readiness to dominate the future fight.”
Regarding specifications, Allvin said that, even with the lower cost, the aircraft will have much improved capabilities over previous designs. It remains to be seen if the review has influenced the capabilities of the aircraft and if the Air Force had to look for a compromise in order to make the new fighter jet more affordable.
“The F-47 will have significantly longer range, more advanced stealth, be more sustainable, supportable, and have higher availability than our fifth-generation fighters,” said Allvin. “This platform is designed with a ‘built to adapt’ mindset and will take significantly less manpower and infrastructure to deploy.”
Every time a new aircraft is unveiled, I can’t help but think back to the mysterious sightings over Wichita and Amarillo in 2014 (Story here: https://t.co/25v5yi04aI). Now, with the first rendering of the F-47 unveiled and confirmation that it has been flying for five years, one… pic.twitter.com/C2Rl0wSsVX
— David Cenciotti (@cencio4) March 21, 2025
The two images
For the announcement of the contract award, two images have been released and shown during the briefing in the Oval Office. One of them shows the F-47 emerging from the shadows of a hangar, while the other shows it in flight, surrounded by the vapor cone that often forms around an aircraft when it approaches transonic speeds.
The design appears to have inherited some features from Boeing’s YF-118G Bird of Prey technology demonstrator developed in the 1990s. Among these are the wing dihedral and the shovel-like nose, which give the F-47 an interesting look which is quite different from previous designs.
Seems topical pic.twitter.com/sM1ijsX1fg
— TaskForce23 (@Task_Force23) March 21, 2025
Surprisingly, the aircraft appears to feature a canard configuration, as foreplanes are visible beside the cockpit, following the wing’s dihedral angle. Canard configurations have often been judged as the “enemy” of low observability. The reasons for this choice could reside in a need for a better maneuverability and stability.
The two images emerged so far do not allow to discern the planform of the aircraft, the tail configuration and details about the engines. Given the canard configuration, Boeing might have opted for a tailless design, with a delta, lambda or cranked arrow being the most likely wing planforms, although they are not usually associated with a pronounced dihedral.
Considering how the aircraft is shown in the images, there is no way to discern the number of engines and the location of the air inlets. All the notional renderings shown the NGAD aircraft as a twin engine fighter, with the inlets on the underside.
Having said that, we cannot completely rule out that these are still somewhat notional designs, especially since Trump and Allvin mentioned they didn’t want to give out many details. Therefore, the final F-47 might also be completely different from what has been shown, or maybe some features might have been voluntarily added to throw off foreign intelligence.
The cost
NGAD is currently the most expensive program in the Air Force’s research and development budget, with the 2025 budget request including $19.6 billion in the next five years. The Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract awarded to Boeing is estimated to be worth over €20 billion, which would be followed by hundreds of billions of dollars in orders over the contract’s lifetime.
Before the announcement, the cost of the NGAD fighters was expected to be in the hundreds of millions apiece, with the most accredited estimate being $300 million per aircraft. Then, as mentioned earlier, Trump said “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.”
However, an indication of the maximum price to expect was provided by Gen. Allvin in the statement on the contract award. In fact, Allvin said that, “Compared to the F-22, the F-47 will cost less and […] we will have more of the F-47s in our inventory.”
The price of a single F-22 Raptor, as disclosed by the Air Force, is €143 million. This would mean that the F-47 would cost less than half of the earlier estimated price, possibly close to the price of the first F-35s produced. The number of aircraft to be produced would allow to decrease the cost even more.
Speaking on the volume of the fleet, Allvin said that there will be more F-47s than F-22. The production of the Raptor was halted after 195 aircraft, although the number decreased because of the attrition. The initial plans for NGAD foresaw an order for 200 manned fighters.
The review of the program in 2024 was also caused by the rising costs, as the estimated price tag was considered one of the most critical aspects amid budget constraints. It is unclear if the results of the review influenced the design to allow a reduction of the price.
