President Trump likes American fighter planes, and awarding the F-47 contract to Boeing for the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance fighter puts U.S. back in the lead for dominant airpower.
President Donald Trump likes American fighter planes, and he’s just made the biggest fighter plane decision in almost 25 years. Awarding the F-47 contract to Boeing for the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance fighter puts America back in the lead for dominant airpower.
“Nothing in the world comes even close to it,” Trump said.
This is also Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s first major acquisition decision, and it’s a bold one. By moving swiftly, the Trump administration has corrected yet another inexplicable Biden-era slip that delayed a program decision last summer.
Word is that President Donald Trump was personally involved. He’s Making Airpower Great Again.
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The U.S. has the stealthy B-21, a new, sixth-generation bomber, which first flew in 2023 and is now in low-rate production in California. Trump says the F-47 will be in the air “during my administration.” Next up? A brand-new Navy aircraft carrier fighter plane, which the Navy says they will announce later this year.
All this comes not a moment too soon. China has been investing in multiple sixth-generation designs, and flew not one but two advanced, new aircraft late last year. As I wrote Jan. 29, the Chinese J-36 and J-50 planes sent shockwaves through the Pentagon because their mission is long-range hunting and killing of American combat planes and ships.
Here are eight things to know about the F-47, the Air Force’s newest star.
The F-47 is fast. “Its speed is top, over 2,” Trump said on Friday. Wow. He’s implying a Mach 2 speed, twice the speed of sound.
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The F-47 will have a pilot. Yes, Elon Musk has trash talked manned fighters for years, but that was before he knew about the F-47. According to previous Air Force statements, this is a crewed aircraft. But let me say, there is really no plane out there today that can’t be adapted for unmanned flight.
The F-47’s mission is to take on China. China has spent years building up aircraft, electronic warfare, long-range missiles and drones so they can put up defensive bubbles to lock the U.S. Air Force out of the skies over the Pacific. Well, too bad. Once called the penetrating combat aircraft, the F-47’s mission is to get weapons into the Chinese bubble and break it up.
Stealth all the way: Take another look at the image brought by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin to the Oval Office on Friday. You can see the careful shaping where the cockpit canopy joins the fuselage. The dramatic sweep of the wings fades out for security, but the angle implies a delta-wing, lifting body shape, chosen to increase range. The trailing edge won’t be revealed for a long time, because that’s where you’d see many secrets of low observability to radar and clever work with engine exhaust. The F-47 likely makes use of advanced composites, replacing metal in primary structures.
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The F-47 will go beyond the F-22. “Level 5 is good, this is Level 6,” Trump said. “Level 5,” as Trump put it, includes the F-35 and F-22. Lucky him, read into all the test data. What the aerospace engineers call “sixth-generation” includes stealth but also a range of other capabilities, including networked information flows, smart weapons, capacity for combat teaming with drones, and much more.
When Trump says the F-47 is “producing numbers no one has seen before” he is referring to verification of its stealth “signature” via operational evaluation on stealth test ranges, a key discriminator in Boeing’s win. The F-47 will look infinitesimal to enemy fire control radars, and when combined with tactics, that makes it very tough to target and shoot down.
Advanced engines. Mach 2 speed with stealth and range included comes courtesy of very advanced engines. While details on the powerplant remain secret, the Air Force has been investing in advanced propulsion for well over a decade. Fighter engines must produce incredible power in a very compact size. New technology allows both supersonic speeds without afterburner and an efficient cruise mode that extends range over the Pacific, all while masking the hot infrared signature. Expect the F-47 to have an engine that makes China weep.
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The F-47 is almost ready to go. Yes, there will be more testing, but the F-47 was digitally designed and has been flying in secret since the fall of 2020. In the past, stealth aircraft took years to mature, but the F-47 breaks this pattern. Like the B-21 bomber, the F-47 should move rapidly at the factory.
The award of a $20 billion contract over five years signals that production is close. Trump says he’s ordered “a lot.” Smart. The F-47 should be bought as fast as possible, to keep acquisition costs in line and most of all, because F-47s are needed in the Pacific ASAP. Sales to allies – probably top air forces like Britain, Australia, Japan and others – may be approved to buy the F-47 down the line
A bunch of bombs. The F-47 is a highly maneuverable fighter but it can carry bombs, too. The designation of F-47 echoes the rugged World War II P-47 Thunderbolt, lovingly known as “the jug.” The first P-47 entered combat in 1943 and its turbocharged Pratt & Whitney R-2800 “Double Wasp” engine gave it a service ceiling of 40,000 feet with a bomb load almost half that of a B-17 bomber.
Like its namesake, I bet the F-47 excels at higher altitudes and carries an impressive ordnance load of air-to-air missiles and air-to-ground weapons in internal bays and on external wing stations if needed.
“You have to have it,” Trump summed up. “We’ll ensure the USA continues to dominate the skies.”
