The glory days of fighter aircraft dogfights are not gone -- just different. On March 21, President Donald Trump announced from the Oval Office that the US Air Force had selected a winner in the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) sixth-generation jet fighter competition: the Boeing Company's F-47, which beat out Lockheed. In the future, an adversary will be killed by a missile fired from beyond visual range by a fighter never seen.
The F-47 Takes the Stage
The US Air Force believes this jet represents a big leap in technological capability needed to dominate such near-peer adversaries as China, which is surging ahead. As the Daily Caller explained, "The NGAD program originally came from a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) study in 2014 into modernizing for the 2030s.” With an already impressive inventory of air-to-air and air-to-ground manned fighters, the United States is still in a competition for military capability survival. In December 2024, China revealed its version of sixth-generation fighters, J-36 and J-XX. As described by The Diplomat:
"By revealing their prototypes, China signaled that it has surpassed both US and Russian technologies by integrating AI (artificial intelligence), improved stealth, 'hypersonic speeds, and advanced weaponry' … This is the first time that a country has developed more advanced aircraft technology than the United States since the end of World War II. It could mark the start of a significant shift in regional and global air power dynamics, especially given that the US military dominance depends on mastery of the air."
The Diplomat's description of the Chinese fighters might be a bit hyperbolic, since few believe the People's Liberation Army Air Force currently has an edge over US stealth and electronic mission systems. Furthermore, from an operational capability perspective, a serious and avid fan base believes the F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter remains unsurpassed. However, most of the others are fourth-generation technology. The first F-22A took to the air on its maiden flight in 1997, 28 years ago. Though the plan was for a fleet exceeding 700 aircraft, only 195 were produced for the US Air Force. (Of those, only about 150 are fully mission-capable today.) The fighter's claim to fame is that it can climb to altitudes of more than 50,000 feet and maintain supersonic speeds higher than 1.5 Mach without using an afterburner.
However, the F-22 is feeling its age, so the need to find a replacement is now. Enter the F-47, a tailless, stealthy fighter, with high speeds in the 2.0 plus Mach range and longer range, based on what information has been made public. In a statement, Air Force Chief of Staff David Alvin explained, "With the F-47, we are not just building another fighter – we are shaping the future of warfare and putting our enemies on notice. 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."
Lower Cost, Quicker Development
The F-47 is unique in this age of weapon systems being over cost and behind schedule because critical technologies make the project more capable sooner. Alvin described the progress already made: "For the past five years, the [experimental] 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." Reports are that the F-47 will take advantage of already developed coatings on the B-21 Raider, America's new strategic stealth bomber. This would lower the cost of achieving a stealthy airframe skin.
Alvin maintains 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." With America's adversaries working diligently to increase the quantity of their forces, having a compelling number of sixth-generation fighters is crucial. Another critical aspect of any new fighter capability was addressed when Alvin explained, "This platform is designed with a 'built to adapt' mindset and will take significantly less manpower and infrastructure to deploy."
Because of the early prototyping of new technologies, Alvin asserted that "the F-47 will fly during President Trump's administration." If that can be achieved, it will be an amazing accomplishment.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.
