Boeing Wins F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance Fighter Contract

In the biggest development for U.S. Air Force tactical air power in more than two decades, Boeing has been announced as the winner of the service’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) ‘fighter’ initiative. As the centerpiece of the NGAD effort, the new crewed sixth-generation stealth combat jet, now designated the F-47, is set to change air combat forever, with the Air Force hoping to begin fielding it in the next decade. Boeing and Lockheed Martin had been facing off to build the NGAD combat jet, but neither company had formally confirmed it was competing. Northrop Grumman dropped out of the bidding process on its own accord to focus on other opportunities.

The Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract for NGAD is expected to be worth approximately $20 billion, although, across the life of the program, the company is in line to receive hundreds of billions of dollars in orders. Each copy of the jet, once series production commences, has been estimated in the past to cost upwards of $300 million. That is if the original concept for the aircraft has not changed.

It’s worth recalling that, while the NGAD terminology is frequently used to refer to the crewed combat jet that will be at the center of the effort, the program of the same name is a much broader initiative. As such, it includes the development of Collaborative Aircraft (CCA) drones with high degrees of autonomy, as well as new jet engines, weapons, electronic warfare suites, sensors, networking ecosystems, battle management capabilities, and more.

The NGAD combat jet program evolved from plans for what was originally referred to as a Penetrating Counter-Air (PCA) platform, which emerged publicly in the mid-2010s. The PCA concept was an outgrowth of previous work the Air Force had done in cooperation with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

In contrast to previous fighter competitions, NGAD has been cloaked in secrecy from the outset. Indeed, for a long time, the Air Force didn’t even disclose which companies were in the running for NGAD. As noted earlier Northrop Grumman, the company was reportedly recently dropped from the competition to build the U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX next-generation carrier-based stealth fighter, part of a broader program that is alternatively and confusingly also known as NGAD. The firm is also highly focused on fulfilling the high-stakes B-21 Raider contract.

Lockheed Martin is already highly active in the fighter business, with its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in production for three U.S. services and multiple foreign countries, and with manufacture of the latest Block 70/72 versions of the F-16 also ongoing. It also continues to sustain the F-22 Raptor. It’s Skunk Works advanced projects division is famous for pushing the technological envelope, especially when it comes to tactical airpower-related programs.

March 21, 2025