President Donald Trump has revealed details about the next generation of U.S. Air Force fighter jets.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump pledged to usher in a new era of readiness and lethality for the United States military.
The president is now fulfilling that promise just two months into his second term.
As the Associated Press reports, Trump announced that Boeing had been awarded the contract to build what will be known as the F-47 Air Force fighter jet.
The warplane is a sixth-generation aircraft poised to replace the F-22 Raptor, built by Lockheed Martin.
During an event in the Oval Office, Trump, joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, revealed the administration’s decision to move forward with production of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter jet platform, as a release from the Pentagon explained.
The platform is described as a “network-connected family of systems — including a stealth fighter jet component, drone technology, and others – that simultaneously interact to ensure air superiority.”
“Nothing in the world comes even close to it,” Trump said of the platform.
The aircraft component of the new platform will be dubbed the F-47 in a nod to Trump’s current term in office.
Trump added that the contract to build the NGAD is evidence of his commitment to making a “historic investment in the country’s defense industrial base, keeping the U.S. on the cutting edge of aerospace technology.”
Hegseth was equally enthusiastic, declaring that the F-47 “sends a very direct, clear message to our allies that we’re not going anywhere and to our enemies that we can, and we will, be able to project power around the globe, unimpeded, for generations to come.”
The advanced technology set to be embodied by the project was outlined by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin as part of the administration’s announcement.
Allvin explained that NGAD “is allowing us to look into the future and unlock the magic that is human-machine teaming.”
“We’re going to write the next generation of modern aerial warfare with this.”
Allvin noted that the program’s structure will afford the government greater control to update and adapt the platform “at the speed of relevance [and] at the speed of technology.”
The F-47 is projected to cost less than the aging F-22, boast greater adaptability to threats, and “have significantly longer range, more advanced stealth, be more sustainable, supportable, and have higher availability than our fifth-generation fighters.”
Notably, cost estimates and timelines for production were omitted from the Oval Office announcement event.
However, Trump did indicate his belief that a fleet of F-47 aircraft would be “built and in the air” before his term ends.
Offering high praise for the project outlined by Trump and Hegseth was Dr. Rebecca Grant of the Lexington Institute, a defense and security policy think tank in Arlington, Virginia.
“By moving swiftly, the Trump administration has corrected yet another inexplicable Biden-era slip that delayed a program decision last summer,” Grant noted.
Grant added that the move “comes not a moment too soon,” given China’s massive existing investments in sixth-generation designs.
Concluding her words of support for the program, Grant echoed Trump’s bluntly stated belief that, when it comes to this type of advancement in an increasingly dangerous world, “You have to have it.”
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