On March 21st, President Trump announced the decision to award U.S. aerospace company Boeing an estimated $20 billion contract to build the United States Air Force’s most advanced fighter jet yet – the F-47. This sixth-generation stealth fighter is a key element of the U.S. Air Force’s covert and expensive Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, which aims to fly the F-47 alongside autonomous drones, dubbed Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

The companies competing for the contract included Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, which dropped out of the running in 2023. The Air Force said that the contract announcement came after a “fair and thorough” source selection process, validating the NGAD concept as “the most capable and cost-effective solution to maintain air superiority” in an environment of evolving global threats.

An Air Force statement described the reasons for the designated name, F-47: “It honors the legacy of the P-47, whose contributions to air superiority during World War II remain historic. Additionally, the number pays tribute to the founding year of the Air Force, while also recognizing the 47th President’s pivotal support for the development of the world’s first sixth-generation fighter.” 

Until Boeing’s NGAD victory, Lockheed Martin was the sole prime contractor manufacturing stealth fighters in the West. Minimal information has been disclosed about the highly classified NGAD fighter, which is anticipated to replace the F-22 Raptor and come into service in the 2030s, a decade after the NGAD program was first publicly acknowledged.

This contract offers a much-needed boost for Boeing at a time when its F/A-18 production line is winding down. The company’s defense unit has lost billions of dollars in recent years due to a series of poorly performing fixed-price contracts.

The contract decision was announced by the president in a briefing at the White House, accompanied by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, and Lt. Gen. Dale White, the service’s top uniformed acquisition officer. In his remarks, Trump said, “The F-47 is equipped with state-of-the-art stealth technologies—virtually unseeable—and unprecedented power, the most power of any jet of its kind ever made. Maneuverability, likewise, there’s never been anything like it, despite the power and speed.”

This fighter is viewed by President Trump as crucial to maintaining the United States’ air supremacy over China. “America’s enemies will never see it coming,” he said. “Hopefully we won’t have to use it for that purpose, but you have to have it. And if it ever happens, they won’t know what the hell hit them.”

Trump refused to divulge the contract’s value, claiming that doing so would reveal too much about the fighter’s technology or size, which he dubbed a “good-sized plane.” For the first time, a U.S. president publicly suggested that the United States might sell ‘toned down’ versions of the fighter to ‘certain’ allies, diverging from the policy regarding the F-47’s predecessor, the F-22, which was barred from export due to national security concerns. General Allvin shared that the F-47 will outperform the F-22 in terms of range, stealth, and ease of maintenance.

Recognizing the importance of this contract, Boeing’s interim CEO of the defense unit, Steve Parker, stated, “We made the most significant investment in the history of our defense business, and we are ready to provide the most advanced and innovative NGAD aircraft needed to support the mission.”