The F-47 is the first aircraft in a family of related systems under the military’s next-generation air control program.
President Donald Trump has announced that Boeing will build a sixth generation fighter jet for the US Air Force.
Air Force leaders will move to produce a fleet of new aircraft officially designated F-47s.
“We are confident that it will significantly overwhelm the capabilities of other countries,” Trump said.
“From speed to maneuverability to what is possible for the payload, there was nothing close to it.”
The F-47 is the first aircraft to become a family of related systems under the umbrella of the military’s Next Generation Air Control (NGAD) program, which began in 2014 with the aim of deploying new aircraft by the 2030s.
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Trump said the F-47 would soon begin production execution, and the military had already built many of the facilities needed to manufacture the system in the coming years.
However, most of the projects are still wrapped in secret cloaks due to fears that foreign enemies, including communist China, will try to steal valuable information about new technologies.
Here are some key points from Trump’s F-47 announcement:
The F-47 will be deployed along with the drone
The F-47 is a manned aerial vehicle designed to function as a major unit along a flock of unmanned aerial systems.
These undeniable cooperative fighter jets (CCAs) essentially act as wingmen for the pilots of the F-47, thereby increasing the lethality that each fighter can withstand.
Trump suggested on March 21 that the number of drones operating alongside F-47 pilots is scalable. This means that pilots may have fewer or more unmanned ships needed for a particular mission set, or they may have many unmanned crafts.
“This plane is flies by drone,” Trump said. “It flies along with a lot of lots of drones. As much as you want.”
Air Force Secretary David Allvin, who joined Trump in the oval office, said the F-47 would “unlock the magic, a human machine team,” and that the system would become the “crown gem” of the NGAD family of systems.
Important capabilities for conflict with China
The possibility of a communist war with China was a key factor in shaping the development of the F-47 as the United States aims to move away from an asymmetrical war against terrorist rebellion into a modern combat space with its almost peer enemies.
The headache of maintaining a strong enough US supply line to project power across the Pacific during wartime has been a key consideration for the Pentagon in recent years.
The NGAD program is designed to address such operational needs and enhance the country’s ability to project power into highly competitive theatres like the Indo-Pacific, where current fighter jets may be maximally effective.
To that end, Trump said the F-47 could penetrate China’s defenses, which would allow for the addition of much-needed arrows to the trembling of the US.
“The American enemy will never see it coming,” Trump said.
“If that happens, they don’t know that (explosively) they hit them,” he added.
Trump said the F-47 has the best line capabilities in several areas, and its sophisticated stealth, avionics and adaptive engine appears to position it as the cutting edge and capable fighter jet built to date.
“This is the next level,” he said.
In December, footage of a tailless stealth aircraft running a test flight near Chengdu, Sichuan Island, appeared.
The aircraft, unofficially called the J-36, could be a Chinese bid to make the US leap in fighter designs.
Boeing Lifeline after years of turbulence
Boeing defeated Lockheed Martin on a $20 billion deal to develop the F-47, and it also has a cascade effect on defense industrial bases.
The companies previously published a design concept featuring Teles’ aircraft with a flat, sharp nose, and Boeing left its contract to build the F-47 “after a strict and thorough competition.”
Defense contracts could prove to be a key lifeline for Boeing, and have overcome many scandals in recent years, with a major financial and reputational impact.
The Boeing 737 Max programme encountered a severe setback following two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.
Boeing’s leadership also admitted that he made a mistake in the lead-up to the Oregon climax incident last year when Alaska Airlines’ plane panels were flying around because they were not properly bolted.
The company also lost to SpaceX in NASA’s commercial crew program, and Starliner Spacecraft experienced delays and technical issues that resulted in a loss of $1.6 billion in Starliner program since 2016.
In March 2025, Boeing was forced to halt all shipments of its KC-46 Pegasus refueling aircraft after the Air Force discovered a crack in two of the four new planes delivered by the company.
The costly discovery led the Air Force to ground the entire fleet of planes.
Then, on March 20th, an illegal death lawsuit was announced by John Burnett’s family against Boeing, just one day before Trump announced that Boeing would receive a contract to build the F-47.
Burnett, a manager of Boeing Quality for 30 years, died of suicide last year after his family described it as a campaign of harassment and threats against his whistleblowing that blows away complaints about the safety of one of the planes.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed last year that it was investigating claims that the Boeing 787’s Dreamliner components were improperly put together and “can break along the way while flying after thousands of trips.”
“We recognize the importance of designing, building and delivering the combat capabilities of the sixth generation of the US Air Force,” Steve Parker, interim CEO of Boeing Defense, said in a March 21 press statement.
