Hinting at what would be the planned delivery timeline for the F-47 program, a U.S. congressman recently stated that the future sixth-generation fighter of the United States Air Force (USAF) would not be ready before 2030, which would imply that the institution must consider sustaining its current platforms for longer than expected. The remarks were made during the McAleese Defense Programs Conference, where the Republican representative for Virginia and chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, Rob Wittman, indicated that the USAF will have to sustain its fleet of F-22 Raptor fighters as a bridge until the transition is completed.
In this regard, it is worth recalling that the goal set by the main authorities of the United States Air Force is to have the first F-47 sixth-generation fighter aircraft by 2028 in order to subject them to the corresponding flight tests, a three-year timeframe from the contract award to Boeing that is considered highly ambitious by local analysts, who draw parallels with the F-35 Lightning II program and how it required five years prior to reaching that milestone. As of now, the force still maintains hope of meeting that target, according to statements by General Dale White, who serves as supervisor of the F-47 program.
Following that line, General Dale White stated that the USAF is taking an increasingly prominent role in shaping the roadmaps associated with the F-47 program, which address issues such as design timelines, development, and subsequent production. Quoting some of his words: “We needed the government to get back into engineering. We had outsourced engineering for a long time. And being able to do that, to have a government reference architecture in collaboration with industry, allowed us to have more continuous competition, avoiding dependence on a single supplier. But at the same time, we now have a contract that allows us to develop our capabilities.”
This position was also shared by the now former Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General David Allvin, who last year also told lawmakers that the Air Force was in the process of assuming greater responsibilities in these stages of the program. As he described at the time, this would allow Washington to gain greater control and knowledge over the platform’s development process, something that in the case of the F-35 Lightning II did not occur, as Lockheed Martinretained its rights over key design data.
It is useful to recall at this point that the future F-47 sixth-generation fighter fighters are conceived by the United States Air Force as a direct replacement for what are currently its most capable fighters, namely the aforementioned F-22 Raptor. It is therefore an aircraft being developed with the aim of achieving a combat platform capable of operating in highly demanding scenarios, in partnership with Boeing, which in March 2025 was selected as the winner of a highly secretive competition that also included Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.
Regarding the characteristics of the fighter known so far, mainly through data published by the United States Air Forceitself, it can be mentioned that the F-47 sixth-generation fighter would be capable of reaching speeds above Mach 2 and would have a combat radius exceeding 1,000 nautical miles. This latter figure is significant, considering that its range would be nearly double that of the F-22 Raptor it is set to replace, thanks to the new Pratt & Whitney XA103 enginesbeing developed by Pratt & Whitney.
Finally, it should be mentioned that alongside these development efforts, the United States Air Force has also signaled that it is seeking to develop a new missile that is shaping up to be one of the first weapons for the F-47 sixth-generation fighter. Although this is a preliminary search for industrial partners, the document published by the USAF Life Cycle Management Center at Eglin Air Force Base indicated that it would be a model similar to the SiAW missile, which in turn should also be compatible with the B-21 Raider bombers and F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters.
*Images for illustrative purposes.
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