Generic NGAD Rendering Donald Trump has announced that Boeing has won the Next Generation Air Defense (NGAD) fighter contract
The F-47, as it will be designated, is a new heavy fighter to replace the F-22 and (at least some) F-35s.
As near as I can tell from publicly available data, it will have a MTOW in the 40 ton range, similar to that of the F-22.
I would expect the range to be better, because of propulsion and material improvements, though the F-15, which does not have to carry a significant amount of fuel for cooling, might still out range it.
Obviously the stealth features should require less maintenance, and much like its F-22 and F-35 predecessors, it will carry all munitions internally, limiting flexibility.
Personally, I'm of the opinion that the effectiveness of stealth will decrease in future years, given that the underlying physics is publicly available, having been initially published in a Soviet academic journal, and advances in processing power and radar systems should increasingly be able to extend detection ranges.
Also, I am very dubious of Boeing being able to execute on time or on budget, since the company is still a clusterf%$#:
Boeing won a contract March 21 to develop a next-generation combat aircraft for the U.S. Air Force that will spearhead future air wars and throw a lifeline to the company’s struggling military aviation business.
The White House announcement came after a tumultuous competition between Boeing and Lockheed Martin for the prized rights to build the aircraft that is meant to anchor the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems.
“It will be known as the F-47, the generals picked a title,” President Donald Trump said. “It’s something the likes that no one has seen before.”
Yeah, sure. The "Generals picked," the title, which corresponds to Trump being President 47.
Following years of losses and missteps by Boeing Defense, this contract was a, "MUst win," for them, and one has to wonder if much of the reason for this choice is for industrial base preservation as anything else.
………
The Air Force wants a new aircraft with the range, speed and stealth to operate effectively over the vast Indo-Pacific region and against some of China’s most advanced weapons systems, including current and future stealth fighters and surface-to-air missile systems. The requirements dictate an aircraft with performance that defies familiar categories for combat aircraft, such as a fighter or bomber. But Boeing’s future aircraft is expected to feature supersonic speed and perhaps a lack of vertical control surfaces, along with a large structure to carry all fuel, sensors and weapons internally.
The cost-plus contract award for NGAD also offers a reprieve for a defense and space business within Boeing that has reported over $18 billion in reach-forward losses on fixed-price military and NASA programs since 2014, including $5 billion in new charges from 2024 alone. Despite the losses, Boeing invested heavily to win the NGAD contract, including starting construction nearly two years ago on a new factory in St. Louis to produce the aircraft.
This appears to be, unlike the F-35, a single service program, as all the current renderings show a tailless design, which mitigates against carrier versions or STOVL versions.
They are promising that it will be cheaper than the F-22, but I sincerely doubt this.
Other sources have stated that they expect the aircraft to first take to the air some time in 2028, of which I am dubious. In any case, I would expect service entry to follow any first flight by around a decade.
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