⚡️🇺🇸 — The Pentagon announced Tuesday that Boeing has been selected over Northrop Grumman for a $20B contract to develop test aircraft for the US Navy’s next-generation stealth fighter under the F/A-XX program. The long-term lifecycle value could reach hundreds of billions as production scales and potential international orders materialize. The decision grants Boeing consecutive sixth-generation fighter contracts following its March 2025 selection for the Air Force’s F-47, resolving months of delays over a program central to US strategy for countering China in the Pacific.

Boeing’s legacy with carrier-based platforms (F/A-18E/F Super Hornet) offset internal concerns regarding its simultaneous engineering and supply-chain capacity for two concurrent sixth-generation programs. — Reuters

➡️ The F/A-XX will anchor the Navy’s Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems. Despite previous procurement friction and proposed three-year delays over defense-industrial capacity, Congress secured funding with $750M via the 2025 spending law and an additional $1.4B in fiscal 2026. Lockheed Martin was eliminated from the competition in March 2025 for failing to meet required design criteria, leaving Boeing and Northrop Grumman as the final contenders. First production aircraft are expected in the 2030s.

➡️ The F/A-XX platform is designed to replace the F/A-18E/F fleet (expected to remain operational into the 2040s), delivering advanced stealth, extended range/endurance, and integration with uncrewed combat aircraft and carrier air-defense networks. Concurrently, the Navy maintains plans to procure over 270 F-35C fighters. The Pentagon’s acceleration responds directly to Beijing's rapid fielding of advanced combat aircraft—including self-described sixth-generation designs—increasing pressure on the US Navy to prevent a modern carrier-fighter capability gap in the 2030s and beyond.

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