US Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin provided a brief but important update on the state of the F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance project, noting that “after years of work, hundreds of test hours, 1,000s of man-years in the lab, the President announced the F-47” and that Boeing is beginning the manufacture of the first aircraft, aiming for first flight in 2028.

Allvin reinforced the need to “go fast”. He also gloated about the fact that secrecy is, so far, being a key characteristic of the entire project. Only two render images have been released so far and they have been heavily doctored not to reveal anything meaningful, apart from the apparent presence of canards in the design. The USAF, anyway, cautions that the images “don’t necessarily fully reflect” the aircraft real life look anyway.

It is understood that several “X planes”, flying prototypes have flown extensively to de-risk NGAD and lead to the final selection, yet those flying examples are also not known or documented, a notable achievement in an era in which keeping something secret has become remarkably complex.

In terms of specifications, the USAF had publicly circulated earlier a placard which promises a combat radius of over 1,000 nautical miles and speed of “Mach 2+”. Everything else is still unknown. The F-47 is expected to feature advanced broadband stealth and a novel suite of sensors and EW, and its advanced engines will probably enable it to “supercruise” over very long distances, but all information is still classified.

“At least” 185 are to be built, to replace all of the F-22s, but there are hopes the final number will be higher and the F-47 might spirally evolve going through multiple rounds of production. Cost has however been a concern, with figures as high as 300 million USD apiece circulating in the recent past.

Boeing is known to have made major investments to expand its facilities in St. Louis, Missouri, to prepare the production of the new fighter: in June 2024 work started on the construction of a whole new, dedicated assembly line for the F-47 valued at 1.8 billion USD.

Boeing is also in the running for the F/A-XX of the US Navy, which judging from the only render released would have many similarities with the F-47. Northrop Grumman is the rival in the Navy’s new fighter competition, with Lockheed Martin having dropped out. The US Navy project should start soon but it has been held back so far by budgetary and industrial concerns, with the Trump administration expressing the opinion that the industrial base is not ready to handle 2 such projects at once. Industry, however, claims the exact opposite and Congress is keen to have the project start off with selection of the winner as soon as possible.

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