US President Donald Trump has awarded Boeing a contract to build the US Air Force's most sophisticated fighter jet, known as Next Generation Air Dominance.
The NGAD programme will replace Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor with a crewed aircraft built to enter combat alongside drones.
The 47th president, who announced the award on Friday at the White House with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Air Force leadership, said with a grin that the new fighter would be named the F-47.
General David Allvin, chief of staff of the Air Force, said, "We're going to write the next generation of modern aerial warfare with this." And Hegseth said the future fleet "sends a very clear, direct message to our allies that we’re not going anywhere."
The plane's design remains a closely held secret, but would likely include stealthiness, advanced sensors, and cutting-edge engines.
The engineering and manufacturing development contract is worth more than $20 billion. Boeing will eventually receive hundreds of billions of dollars in orders over the contract's multi-decade lifetime.
For Boeing, the win marks a reversal of fortune for a company that has struggled on both the commercial and defence sides of its business. It is a major boost for its St. Louis, Missouri, fighter jet production business.
Pentagon says the jet will have stealth and penetration capabilities that far exceed those of its current fleet and are essential in a potential conflict with China.
Drone and space warfare
Critics have questioned the cost and the necessity of the programme as the Pentagon is still struggling to fully produce its current most advanced jet, the F-35, which is expected to cost taxpayers more than $1.7 trillion over its lifespan.
In addition, the Pentagon's future stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider, will have many of the same cutting edge technologies in advanced materials, AI, propulsion and stealth.
More than 1,100 F-35s have already been built for the US and multiple international partners.
A fleet of about 100 future B-21 stealth bombers at an estimated total cost of at least $130 billion is also planned. The first B-21 aircraft are now in test flights.
With evolving drone and space warfare likely to be the centre of any fight with China, Dan Grazier, a military procurement analyst, questions whether "another exquisite manned fighter jet really is the right platform going forward." Grazier, director of the national security reform programme at the Stimson Center, said $20 billion is "just seed money. The total costs coming down the road will be hundreds of billions of dollars."
Musk’s potential conflicts of interests regarding China
Trump meanwhile said that war plans should not be shared with his adviser Elon Musk because of his business interests, a rare suggestion that the billionaire entrepreneur’s expansive role in the administration will face limits.
Trump rejected reports that Musk was getting briefed on plans for a potential war with China while he was at the Pentagon on Friday.
The president said Musk was there to help address costs, part of his goals at the Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump suggested that he would not want to share war plans with an entrepreneur like Musk because of his financial interests.
"Elon has businesses in China," he said. "And he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that."
