US picks Boeing to make sixth-generation F-47

The aerospace giant beat out Lockheed Martin to win the multibillion-dollar, multi-year contract to build the aircraft set to transform the US Air Force.

It will succeed the ageing F-22 to become the country’s main air superiority fighter, effectively specialising in air-to-air combat.

“America’s enemies will never see it coming,” the President said.

It comes weeks after Boeing announced it recorded its biggest annual loss in its 109-year history and revealed it would cut 10 per cent of its overall workforce.

The poor results followed a door plug blowing out mid-air on an Alaska Airlines MAX 9 and its Starliner spacecraft leaving two astronauts stranded on the ISS for nine months.

“I’m thrilled to announce that, at my direction, the United States Air Force is moving forward with the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet. Nothing in the world comes even close to it, and it’ll be known as the F-47,” Trump said.

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“In terms of all of the attributes of a fighter jet, there’s never been anything even close to it, from speed to manoeuvrability, to what it can have, to the payload. And this has been in the works for a long period of time.”

The F-47 is engineered to integrate next-generation stealth, sensor fusion and long-range strike capabilities to counter the most sophisticated adversaries in contested environments.

Its adaptability and modular design allow for integration with emerging technologies, positioning it as what the US believes will be the dominant platform for decades to come.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth expanded on the President’s comments, saying, “Now we have the F-47, which 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 contract award funds the engineering and manufacturing development phase, which includes maturing, integrating and testing all aspects of the F-47.

This phase will produce a limited number of test aircraft for evaluation and the contract also includes competitively priced options for low-rate initial production.

Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, will hope the breakthrough marks a turnaround for his company after another tough 12 months.

Last year, the business lost US$11.8 billion in 2024, taking its total losses since 2019 to more than US$35 billion.

In total, Boeing delivered just 348 jets during that period – down from 528 a year earlier and significantly less than the 765 delivered by Airbus.

The poor results were primarily due to the Federal Aviation Administration capping 737 MAX production at just 38 planes per month following the mid-air blowout of a door plug on board an Alaska Airlines MAX 9.

That incident significantly came after two MAXs crashed in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019, killing 346 people and leading to claims there was a poor safety culture at the planemaker.

Later, in September, it emerged Boeing’s Starliner space capsule would return to Earth from the International Space Station without its astronauts following a problem with its thrusters.

The decision meant crew Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore eventually returned on a rival SpaceX Dragon capsule last week.

The accumulation of problems at Boeing led it to announce late last year it would cut 17,000 roles within months.