What Is the F-47? America’s Sixth-Generation Fighter Explained

The F-47 is the crewed stealth fighter Boeing is building for the US Air Force under the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) programme, and the aircraft meant to take over the air-superiority mission from the F-22 Raptor. It was ordered on 21 March 2025, the first airframe has been in build since 2025, and the service says it will fly in 2028.

Almost everything else is classified. This guide, the first in our F-47 series, sets out what the Air Force has put on the record, what comes from budget papers and credible reporting, and where the public still has only artist’s impressions to go on.

What the F-47 is

The F-47 is a sixth-generation fighter: a long-range, very low-observable aircraft designed to fight its way into defended airspace and clear it of enemy fighters. The Air Force calls the mission penetrating counter-air. In plain terms it is the successor to the F-22 Raptor, built for the distances of the Pacific rather than the Cold War front in Europe.

It is also only one part of NGAD. The programme is described as a family of systems: the crewed fighter, uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) that fly alongside it, a new adaptive engine, and the sensors, weapons and networks that tie them together.

The designation was explained by the Air Force on the day of the award. The number honours the P-47 Thunderbolt of the Second World War, marks 1947 as the year the Air Force became an independent service, and acknowledges Donald Trump, the 47th president, who announced the contract in the Oval Office.

The figures the Air Force has confirmed

The public data set is small. Most of it comes from a single graphic released in May 2025 by Gen. David Allvin, then Air Force chief of staff, which compared the new fighter with the jets it will serve beside.

The radius figure matters most. More than 1,000 nautical miles on internal fuel is roughly 70 per cent beyond the F-22, and it is the number that lets a fighter operate from bases further from Chinese missiles and lean less on vulnerable tankers.

For comparison with the aircraft the F-47 will fly alongside, see our guide to what the F-35 is and what it does.

How the programme got here

The F-47 did not start in 2025. Its roots are in a 2014 DARPA study and a set of secret demonstrator aircraft that began flying in 2019.

The engineering and manufacturing development contract is a cost-plus award reported to be worth more than $20 billion. Boeing beat Lockheed Martin; Northrop Grumman had withdrawn in 2023.

In late September 2026 Brig. Gen. Timothy Helfrich, the Air Force’s senior fighter acquisition officer, said the service was “not too far away from an F-47 production line”. Boeing is spending about $1.8 billion on new assembly buildings in St. Louis.

A fighter built to lead drones

The F-47 is designed from the outset to command uncrewed wingmen. The first two CCA designs, the General Atomics YFQ-42A and the Anduril YFQ-44A, made their first flights in August and October 2025.

The idea is that the drones carry extra missiles and sensors, fly ahead into the most dangerous airspace and are cheap enough to lose. The pilot in the F-47 directs them instead of flying every engagement alone. The Air Force has talked of buying more than 1,000 CCAs across the fleet.

The engine question

The F-47 is intended to use an adaptive-cycle engine from the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) programme. GE Aerospace is developing the XA102 and Pratt & Whitney the XA103. Such engines change their airflow in flight, trading thrust for fuel economy as needed.

There is a gap in the schedule. Budget documents show NGAP prototypes will not be ready for integration until 2030, two years after the planned first flight. The Air Force has not said what will power the first aircraft, and reporting points to an interim arrangement.

What the F-47 will cost

No unit price has been published. Outside estimates run from about $180 million to more than $300 million per aircraft, against roughly $92 million for the latest F-35A. Air Force leaders have said only that it should cost less than the F-22 and be cheaper to keep flying.

Development money is firmer. Congress provided about $3.5 billion for the programme in fiscal 2026, and the fiscal 2027 request asks for roughly $5 billion.

What is still secret

The list is long: the aircraft’s size and weight, how many weapons it carries and which ones, the radar and electronic warfare suite, the final engine, and even its true shape. Officials have said the released renderings were deliberately altered to hide details, so the canard foreplanes they appear to show should be treated with caution.

We cover each of these questions in later articles in this series and will mark clearly where the evidence ends. For a wider view of the field, see our comparison of sixth-generation fighter programmes.

Frequently asked questions

What is the F-47 fighter?

The F-47 is a sixth-generation crewed stealth fighter being developed by Boeing for the US Air Force. It is the centrepiece of the Next Generation Air Dominance programme and is intended to replace the F-22 Raptor in the air-superiority role.

Who makes the F-47?

Boeing. The company won the engineering and manufacturing development contract on 21 March 2025 and will build the aircraft at its fighter plant in St. Louis, Missouri.

When will the F-47 fly?

The Air Force says the first flight will take place in 2028. The first airframe has been under construction since 2025.

How many F-47s will be built?

The Air Force plans to buy at least 185, roughly matching the F-22 fleet. Officials have said the number could rise.

How fast is the F-47 and how far can it fly?

The Air Force has stated a top speed above Mach 2 and a combat radius of more than 1,000 nautical miles. No more detailed performance figures have been released.

Is the F-47 in service?

No. It is in development. First flight is planned for 2028 and squadron service is expected to follow around the end of the decade or in the early 2030s.