During his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump pledged to usher in a new era of readiness and lethality for the United States military, and just two months into his second term, he is fulfilling that promise.
As the Associated Press reports, on Friday, Trump announced that Boeing had been awarded the contract to build what will be known as the F-47 Air Force fighter jet, a sixth-generation aircraft poised to replace the F-22 Raptor, built by Lockheed Martin.
During an event in the Oval Office, Trump, joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, revealed the administration's decision to move forward with production of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter jet platform, as a release from the Pentagon explained.
The platform is described as a “network-connected family of systems -- including a stealth fighter jet component, drone technology and others – that simultaneously interact to ensure air superiority.”
“Nothing in the world comes even close to it,” Trump said of the platform, the aircraft component of which will be dubbed the F-47 in a nod to his current term in office.
Trump added that the contract to build the NGAD is evidence of his commitment to making a “historic investment in the country's defense industrial base, keeping the U.S. on the cutting edge of aerospace technology.”
Hegseth was equally enthusiastic, declaring that the F-47 “sends a very direct, clear message to our allies that we're not going anywhere and to our enemies that we can, and we will, be able to project power around the globe, unimpeded, for generations to come.”
The advanced technology set to be embodied by the project was outlined by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin as part of the administration's announcement.
Allvin explained that NGAD “is allowing us to look into the future and unlock the magic that is human-machine teaming.”
He went on, “We're going to write the next generation of modern aerial warfare with this” and noted that the program's structure will afford the government greater control to update and adapt the platform “at the speed of relevance [and] at the speed of technology.”
The F-47 is projected to cost less than the aging F-22, boast greater adaptability to threats and “have significantly longer range, more advanced stealth, be more sustainable, supportable, and have higher availability than our fifth-generation fighters."
Notably, cost estimates and timelines for production were omitted from the Oval Office announcement event, though Trump did indicate his belief that a fleet of F-47 aircraft would be “built and in the air” before his term ends.
Offering high praise for the project outlined by Trump and Hegseth was Dr. Rebecca Grant of the Lexington Institute, a defense and security policy think tank in Arlington, Virginia, who said, “By moving swiftly, the Trump administration has corrected yet another inexplicable Biden-era slip that delayed a program decision last summer,” Grant noted, adding that the move “comes not a moment too soon,” given China's massive existing investments in sixth-generation designs.
Grant concluded her words of support for the program by echoing Trump's bluntly stated belief that, when it comes to this type of advancement in an increasingly dangerous world, “You have to have it.”
