The American military dependence on air power began with the Army using Curtiss “Jenny” biplanes in the Pancho Villa expedition, to overfly and report on Pancho Villa’s forces. In World War 1 American pilots flew over the trenches and dueled German aircraft, the Americans mostly in French-built SPAD biplanes. But the United States air power came into its own in World War 2 when American aircraft capabilities exploded; we launched fleets of bombers to reduce the war capacities of the Axis powers to rubble and ruin, and protected those bombers with fighter aircraft that were, by the end of the war, unmatched.
That tradition is continuing. On Friday, in the Oval Office, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth revealed plans for the United States’ next-generation fighter, the F-47.
SecDef Hegseth said:
Mr. President, this is a big day. A big day for our warfighters, this is a big day for our country, a big day in the world. The name of this program is the Next Generation of Air Dominance. Mr. President, because of your leadership, your clarity, we are going, America is going to have a generation, generations in the future of air dominance because of this sixth-generation fighter. We’ve had the F-15, we’ve had the F-16, the F-18, the F-22, the F-35, 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 will be able to project power around the globe unimpeded for generations to come.
Mr. President, this is a gift, to my kids, to your kids, to my grandkids, and your grandkids. This is a historic investment in the American military, in the American industrial base, in American industry, that will help revive the warrior ethos, inside our military, which we’re doing. Rebuild our military, which the previous administration did not do – by the way Mr. President, they paused this program, and were prepared to potentially scrap it. We know this is cheaper, longer range, more stealthy but (inaudible) we’re reviving it and doing it. And we are also going to re-establish deterrence. Under the previous administration, we looked like fools. Not anymore. President Trump has re-established American leadership, the F-47 is part of it, and Mr. President, thank you for having the courage to do it, and lead the way for all our warfighters.
The F-47 contract has been awarded to Boeing.
While the specifics of NGAD remain classified, the jet is expected to be highly stealthy with advanced engines, sensors, and weapons. It is envisioned as the centerpiece of a family of systems, with new drones called Collaborative Combat Aircraft in development to fly alongside the jet.
An experimental version of the plane has “secretly been flying for almost five years,” Trump said, adding that the F-47 will be equipped with “state-of-the-art stealth technology—it is virtually unseeable,” and that the jet will fly with “many drones, as many as we want.”
In a statement, Allvin said the new fighter would arrive by 2028.
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And, in the latest news, we learned that the new fighter will be built in the St. Louis area.
For over a century, the United States military has made unchallenged air superiority a policy. In 1991, I remember speaking to an F-16 pilot, who remarked that, by the third or fourth day of the Persian Gulf War’s air war phase, Iraqi pilots were “looking at their airplanes and seeing coffins.” That’s how we do it; that’s how we did it in 1941-1945, when by the end of that war Army, Navy, and Marine aviators owned the skies over Europe and the Pacific.
The F-47 – it has not yet received a name, but given we could consider the WW2-era P-47 to be its great-grandfather, “Thunderbolt” seems an appropriate moniker (everyone calls the A-10 the Warthog anyway) and what little we know now about this new warbird’s capabilities are probably only the tip of the iceberg.
We might note as well that Secretary Hegseth, in speaking with the president, mentioned “re-establishing deterrence.” The new air superiority fighter is doubtless a part of that, but “deterrence” paints with a broad brush; it may be interesting to see what else Secretary Hegseth has up his sleeve.
Stay tuned; we will be bringing you all the latest news of the new F-47 and other DoD developments as they become available.
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