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The Boeing F-47 is set to be the centerpiece of the United States Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance capabilities, a family of air systems that is still discussed in a binary manner. Public disclosures from Boeing argue that the aircraft is a revolutionary sixth-generation aircraft moving forward at record speed, while other industry observers will take a more pessimistic view. Those in the latter camp have routinely argued that the aircraft is behind its scheduled development schedule. The likely truth is probably somewhere in the middle. The contract for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development of the model was awarded to 
Boeing by the Air Force in March 2025, and senior leaders have since indicated that early manufacturing work is well underway on the first aircraft. The first flight of the new jet is currently targeted for 2028.
Narratives of development delays continue to surface, as production at this stage mostly involves building prototypes and testing specific mission systems. The manufacturer is also in the process of placing long-lead orders and designing a highly classified supply chain. The manufacturer is not currently building airframes, and even a single program pause or a slip-up in propulsion system development can push milestones months or even years into the future if teams are struggling to meet program objectives. This kind of framing becomes even sharper when defense analysts compare Boeing’s progress to that of advanced Chinese designs, which some analysts believe are progressing at an even faster pace.
A Brief Overview Of The Boeing F-47 Itself
The Boeing F-47 is the United States Air Force’s planned sixth-generation air-superiority fighter within the Department of War’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative. The aircraft is designed to succeed the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor as the manned centerpiece of a larger family of next-generation air defense systems. It pairs a stealth manned aircraft with uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft, advanced sensors, electronic warfare, and resilient data links in order to win in heavily contested airspace. The aircraft will also function as a sensor-command node for drones.
Public information about this development program is extremely limited due to its classified nature, but the Air Force has outlined the overall direction in which the process is heading. The aircraft’s design objectives include additional range, better survivability, and greater networking across platforms than today’s fighter jets. There are other goals as well, including the development of a combat radius larger than 1,000 nautical miles (1,852 km). The aircraft will also operate at supersonic speeds similar to those of the F-22 Raptor. The Air Force is currently planning to purchase around 185 of these capable jets. Here are the limited specifications for the aircraft, according to figures from Air & Space Forces Magazine:
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1,000 nautical miles (1,852 km) |
US-based aerospace manufacturer Boeing has received the Engineering and Manufacturing Development Contract as of 2025, with specifications for the aircraft to undergo ground and flight testing. The NGAD is also associated with a number of other classified programs that will underpin America’s air defense strategy for years to come. In 2025, the Air Force’s leaders said that the first airframe is currently being built, with a targeted first flight already set for 2028. Should this be true, this would demonstrate an incredibly accelerated timeline.
What Exactly Is Boeing Saying About The Nature Of The Development Process?
If you want to take Boeing’s views at face value, the process of developing the F-47 is not as simple as building a successor to the F-22. The manufacturer has relatively limited experience building stealth-based platforms, as those contracts have been awarded almost exclusively to Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. This made the unique awarding of this contract to Boeing something particularly noteworthy. There’s an argument to be made that Boeing’s decades of technical development, as well as advanced technologies, make it a natural contractor for this kind of model.
According to details published by the United States Air Force, Boeing is mostly projecting speed with this project. Boeing’s top-secret development division, Phantom Works, has indicated it believes the aircraft will be in the skies faster than expected. However, there have been limited commitments made beyond the Air Force’s publicly announced 2028 first-flight target. Notably, when Air Force leaders said that manufacturing of the first aircraft had begun, no additional details were provided by Boeing as to how tightly the program is being held to its timeline.
Collectively, Boeing and the Air Force frame the F-47 program as one mostly challenged by execution. The company has to integrate already-maturing stealth, sensors, communications technologies, and next-generation classified systems. Managing all of this at once, especially behind a massive classification wall and incredibly tight security, is undoubtedly a major challenge for the manufacturer.
The Real Reason Why Boeing Is Building The F-47 Stealth Fighter And Not Lockheed
Stealth, Speed, and Strategy: Inside the F-47 Revolution.
Why Would We Doubt This Positive Rhetoric?
There are a few reasons why we doubt this extremely upbeat message from Boeing. For starters, the NGAD itself was paused in 2024 while the Air Force rechecked requirements and overall affordability, an explicit signal that cost and concept risk were large enough to halt overall momentum. Pauses also tend to create schedule debt even after a program restart. Furthermore, the federal government shutdown and Boeing’s other challenges are unlikely to help the process here.
Second, the program itself is also highly classified, so outsiders are unable to verify what “already in production” actually means for the aircraft itself. Early work on a prototype is extremely different from a supply-chain-oriented production system that will allow the manufacturer to quickly and efficiently deliver the aircraft to operators. Boeing’s track record with complex defense programs also gives us more cause for skepticism.
The T-7A program itself has seen plan resets and delayed production decisions, with reported delivery and supply chain setbacks grabbing headlines. The KC-46 tanker also struggles with delivery issues, including repeated schedule shifts that have fundamentally inhibited the program’s success. The manufacturer’s bottom line is thus relatively easy to state but hard to prove, at least until flight test data accumulates.
Why Was This Contract Even Awarded To Boeing?
This contract went to Boeing because the United States Air Force judged Boeing’s proposal to offer the best overall value for the NGAD. This means that the bid was that Boeing was the manufacturer the Department of War believed best suited to fulfill its extensive requirements, and not that the company was the cheapest, technically acceptable option.
The United States Air Force, likely by design, has kept specific evaluation details classified, but it has described that the decision is the outcome of a fair and extensive selection process. The first phase of this development process will involve Boeing producing a few test aircraft, including competitively priced options for low-rate initial production. Senior leaders then proceed by attaching a clear value proposition to this choice. The F-47 is designed to offer cheaper, longer-range, more stealthy, and more malleable combat capabilities.
The battlefield threats of tomorrow are only continuing to evolve, and the manufacturer is looking to reduce deployment manpower and life-cycle burdens, not just overall performance. Boeing, for its part, has made the biggest investment ever in its defense business, signaling to investors that it believes it can execute the development program’s core objectives.
How Many Military Jets Does The United States Produce Annually?
The United States produced around 150 fighter jets in 2024 and is expected to produce up to 250 in 2025, as well as other specialized jet aircraft.
How Much Will This Aircraft Development Program Cost The American Taxpayer?
From a financial perspective, the F-47 NGAD effort is a long-term research and development (R&D) ramp-up as opposed to a short-term production program. The contract awarded to Boeing was originally reported as worth $20 billion, with follow-on procurement and sustainment processes reaching into the hundreds of billions. Final financials ultimately will depend on the size of the fleet that the Air Force ultimately orders.
Upgrade programs could cost the taxpayer even more. Congress has already appropriated around $8.2 billion each year between 2022 and 2025 for the NGAD development program, reflecting years of classified prototyping and program maturation leading up to the selection of Boeing as the principal contractor in 2025.
In 2026, the Trump Administration requested an additional $2.58 billion for the F-47’s development, alongside separate funds for the uncrewed wingman piece. This overall affordability challenge is real, with the Congressional Budget Office previously estimating that such an airframe could cost up to $300 million, a key reason the Air Force has repeatedly emphasized cost-control options.
What Is Our Bottom Line?
The F-47 program is a massive investment, both for the United States government and for US-based aerospace giant Boeing. As a result, both Boeing and the Air Force have every incentive to make it seem like this program is going as smoothly as possible, especially given how important it is to national security, on top of the financials at stake.
The biggest challenge Boeing will have to overcome is not actually creating a fighter jet that offers all the capabilities the Air Force needs, but rather doing so in a manner that actually allows the company to set up an efficient supply chain. This is the only way Boeing will actually get to the point where they are producing the number of jets they want.
Beyond this, there is the overarching question of whether Boeing has any chance of actually delivering this aircraft on budget, something which has historically been extremely difficult for stealth fighters. If Boeing wants any chance of staying on budget, keeping to a tight development schedule will be critical.
