"The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built," Trump said in the Oval Office while announcing the $20 billion contract.
Boeing beat out rival Lockheed Martin to win the contract for the Next Generation Air Dominance program.
The plane will be dubbed the F-47 and eventually replace the military's existing 187 operational F-22 Raptor fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin.
"An experimental version of the plane has secretly been flying for almost five years, and we're confident that it massively overpowers capabilities of any other nation," Trump told reporters at the White House, flanked by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
"It's something the likes that no one has seen before."
The sixth-generation jet fighter is meant to be able to fight next to unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, something seen as a major part of future air combat.
In 2009, then Secretary of Defense Bob Gates canceled the F-22 Raptor program, after just under half of the 381 jets originally ordered were delivered.
The new F-47s are meant to augment and eventually replace the existing F-22s, the last of which were delivered in 2012.
Gates argued at the time that the 5th generation 5th generation stealth air-superiority fighter with ground attack capabilities was no longer required, as the United States was no longer engaged in wars requiring significant air-to-air combat missions.
Congress later considered restarting the program in 2017 but ultimately embraced Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning as the American military's principal manned fighter. The F-35s cost between $82 million and $102 million depending on the variant with orders for up to 1,760 of the jets.
Several American allies fly the planes while the program to build them factored in battlefield continuity. It has also been criticized for cost overruns and delays.
In 2023, Canada became the latest country to buy the planes, when it signed an order for 88 of the fighter jets to replace its aging McDonnell Douglas-built CF-18 Hornets.
Trump says Boeing won next-generation F-47 fighter jet contract
Washington (AFP) Mar 21, 2025 -
Donald Trump announced Friday that Boeing has been awarded the contract for the Air Force's next-generation stealth fighter plane, which the 47th US president said would be named the F-47.
"Nothing in the world comes even close to it, and it'll be known as the F-47. The generals picked a title, and it's a beautiful number, F-47," said Trump at the White House.
The announcement is a boon for Boeing, which struggled last year with a lengthy labor strike and safety problems on its civilian airliners.
The contract aims to develop the replacement for the F-22 jet -- which has been in operation for some two decades -- with a new, more advanced aircraft able to operate alongside uncrewed drones.
"After a rigorous and thorough competition between some of America's top aerospace companies, the Air Force is going to be awarding the contract for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) platform to Boeing," Trump said in televised remarks in the Oval Office.
He said the price of the contract could not be revealed for security reasons.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking alongside Trump, said the new aircraft "sends a very direct, clear message to our allies that we're not going anywhere, and to our enemies that... we will be able to project power around the globe unimpeded for generations to come."
Boeing said in a statement that the NGAD selection "builds on Boeing's fighter legacy and establishes a new global standard for 6th generation capability."
Boeing is also competing with Northrop Grumman for a contract for the US Navy's next-generation aircraft.
- 'Virtually unseeable' -
Lockheed Martin, which was also in the running for the Air Force contract, said it was "disappointed with this outcome," but was "confident we delivered a competitive solution."
The NGAD effort was paused in 2024 over cost concerns -- a major focus of the Trump administration, which has tasked billionaire donor Elon Musk with slashing government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2018 that the NGAD airframe could cost up to $300 million apiece -- significantly more than various other aircraft currently in the US inventory.
In 2024, "officials cast doubt on whether the Air Force could afford to develop the NGAD alongside programs including the B-21 Raider bomber and the Minuteman III ICBM replacement," the Congressional Research Service said in a report earlier this year.
A senior Air Force officer said earlier this month that the service conducted a study following the pause, which concluded that "not only in the past, not only in the present but in the future, air superiority matters."
"What this study told us is we tried a whole bunch of different options and there is no more viable option than NGAD to achieve air superiority in this highly contested environment," Major General Joseph Kunkel told the AFA Warfare Symposium in Colorado.
The F-47 will replace the F-22 Raptor, which features stealth technology, a high degree of maneuverability and the ability to supercruise, or maintain supersonic flight without afterburners.
Little is known about the capabilities of the F-47, but Trump said the new jet will be "virtually unseeable" with unmatched maneuverability and power, and the ability to fly "with many drones, as many as we want, and that's something that no other plane can do."
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