The Air Force is promising upgrades in range, stealth, schedule, cost, and number of airframes for its Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter—newly christened the F-47—compared to the F-22 aircraft it is succeeding.
Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin, who joined President Donald Trump at the White House on March 21 to unveil the new air superiority fighter, released a statement after the announcement that offered many new details on NGAD, which has been shrouded in secrecy for years.
“Despite what our adversaries claim, the F-47 is truly the world’s first crewed sixth-generation fighter,” Allvin said—an apparent dig at China, which recently revealed several new stealthy-looking combat aircraft types.
The F-47 will join the B-21 bomber in the Air Force’s sixth-gen fleet—Allvin said this new generation of aircraft will have “next-generation stealth, sensor fusion, and long-range strike capabilities to counter the most sophisticated adversaries in contested environments.”
Renderings of the F-47 supplied by the Air Force—which intentionally conceal many of its features—show distinct differences from fifth-generation aircraft like the F-22 and F-35. While the images show a conventionally stealthy nose and bubble canopy with a chiseled chine and a flattened overall fuselage shape, they also reveal both canards and wings with a distinctive upward angle, features that aren’t typical of previous stealth designs.
The F-47 will also have ”significantly longer range” than the F-22, Allvin claimed. The F-22 has a range of more than 1,850 miles with two external wing fuel tanks before it needs to be refueled. Air Force leaders have discussed the possibility that the NGAD would be built in two variants—a larger one with greater range to cope with the great distances of the Pacific theater—and a smaller aircraft more suited to the shorter flying distances between military targets in the European theater.
All told, the Air Force said in a release that the F-47 “represents a significant advancement over the F-22,” and has a modular design that will allow it to be “a dominant platform for decades to come.”
An artist’s rendering of the new F-47 fighter, top, compared to an F-22, below. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Lauren Cobin/USAF graphic
Allvin said X-planes have been testing NGAD technologies for the last five years, “flying hundreds of hours, testing cutting-edge concepts, and proving that we can push the edge of technology with confidence.” The flying campaign has been “accelerating the technology, refining our operational concepts, and proving that we can field this capability faster than ever before. Because of this, this fighter will fly during President Trump’s administration,” he said.
The Trump administration will last until January 2029, less than four years from now. By comparison, the F-22 went from being selected the winner of the Advanced Tactical Fighter contest in 1991 to first flight of a production model in six years.
Air Force officials first made reference to flying NGAD prototypes in 2020, and former Secretary Frank Kendall later revealed that X-plane prototypes flew even earlier than that, in the mid-2010s.
Allvin also promised that 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.”
The flyaway cost of the F-22—which only includes the cost of materials to build one aircraft, and does not include research and development, military construction, or any other non-recurring engineering—was about $140 million. Including those other elements raises the F-22’s cost to about $350 million; higher than expected because the Air Force had structured the program to produce more than 400 airframes, which would have spread out development and nonrecurring expenses.
The F-22 program was terminated at 186 production aircraft. Air Force officials have privately discussed an NGAD force numbering between 220 and 250 aircraft.
At the White House, Trump said “we can’t tell you the price, because it would give away some of the technology and some of the size of the plane; [it’s a] good-sized plane.”
Allvin said the F-47 will also be “more sustainable, supportable, and have higher availability than our fifth-generation fighters.” These are likely references to the hardiness of the jet’s low-observable surface treatments; in the early days of stealth, such treatments—including tape and caulk—had to be laboriously applied by hand to aircraft seams, and this process consumed many hours of maintenance time between flights.
In contrast, the sixth-gen B-21 has been described by the company as a “daily flyer,” with the explanation that this is due to more resilient and contiguous stealth surfaces and the inclusion of Air Force maintainers in many design choices regarding how that aircraft is serviced. The same principles were likely applied in the design of the F-47.
The F-47 was also designed with a “built to adapt” mindset, Allvin said, a likely reference to digital design and an open-systems architecture that will allow frequent changeouts of software, sensors and other mission gear. He also said the fighter will “take significantly less manpower and infrastructure to deploy,” suggesting a reduced dependence on ground equipment and more maintenance-friendly components.
The contract awarded to Boeing today “funds the engineering and manufacturing development phase, which includes maturing, integrating, and testing all aspects of the NGAD platform,” the Air Force said in a release. “This phase will produce a small number of test aircraft for evaluation. The contract also includes competitively priced options for low-rate initial production,” an approach similar to that taken with the B-21 bomber.
“Future basing decisions and additional program elements will be determined in the coming years as the Air Force advances the F-47 toward operational deployment,” the service said.
Steve Parker, interim president and chief executive officer of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, said “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.”
Boeing said that the F-47 will build on “Boeing’s fighter legacy” which includes the P-51 Mustang, F-4 Phantom, F-15 Eagle, F/A-18 Hornet, and EA-18 Growler.
The Air Force did not immediate offer reasons as to why Boeing was selected over Lockheed. Boeing has dealt with a string of programmatic missteps with its KC-46 tanker, T-7 trainer, and VC-25B presidential transport, collectively costing the company nearly $10 billion in overrun costs, due to the fixed-price structure of those contracts. The contractor has also had a series of accidents and serious quality escapes on its commercial airliners.
Lockheed, meanwhile, has faced a yearlong delivery hold on F-35 fighters due to delays with testing the jet’s Technology Refresh 3 upgrade, as well as chronic issues with sustainment costs of that fighter. However, it has been advancing the capabilities of the F-22 to maintain its combat capability as the NGAD is developed.
Boeing said that “technical and programmatic details [on the F-47] remain classified under United States national security and export laws.” In a statement, Lockheed said it is “disappointed with this outcome” and “we will await further discussions with the U.S. Air Force.”
Allvin offered a striking description of the jet’s overall capability.
“With the F-47, we will strengthen our global position, keeping our enemies off-balance and at bay,” he said. “And when they look up, they will see nothing but the certain defeat that awaits those who dare to challenge us.”
