First US sixth-gen fighter jet will be the F-47, Trump says, and Boeing, not Lockheed, is going to build it
Jake Epstein Mar 21, 2025, 11:40 AM ET
Boeing has been selected to build the US Air Force's sixth-gen fighter aircraft.
The Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter is expected to succeed the F-22 Raptor as the top air dominance fighter.
President Trump said on Friday that the new aircraft will be known as the F-47.
The way forward for the US Air Force's mysterious sixth-generation fighter aircraft is clearer. The president revealed that it has a name, and Boeing Co. will build the new jet.
President Donald Trump announced at the White House on Friday that Boeing, a US aerospace giant, is being awarded a lucrative contract to build the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter, which is set to succeed the stealth F-22 Raptor, the world's first fifth-generation fighter jet.
Trump, who was flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, said the new aircraft will be known as the F-47, and hailed it as the most advanced, capable, and lethal aircraft "ever built."
"Nothing in the world comes even close to it," the president said in the Oval Office.
The NGAD is expected to succeed the Lockheed Martin-manufactured F-22, which entered service two decades ago, as the Air Force's top air superiority fighter and will be built to operate alongside drones.
The program is considered a "family of systems" and is expected to work with uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) that function as semiautonomous "loyal wingmen" for the new aircraft.