In March 2025, the United States Air Force made the announcement that Boeing, not Lockheed Martin, will build its new, state-of-the-art F-47 fighter jet, America’s first sixth-generation stealth fighter. The decision may leave some scratching their heads, because Lockheed had already built the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II, fifth-generation fighters. On top of that, Boeing’s been dealing with a slew of unfortunate and at times fatal incidents that have brought up major quality concerns and safety issues, leading to a significant hit to the brand’s public perception and industry reputation.

Nonetheless, the Air Force appears to have all the confidence in the world that Boeing can and will get the job done right. According to AirandForces.com a service spokesman said Boeing provided the “best overall value,” based on its proposal when compared to Lockheed Martin. The brand-new F-47 will be a massive technological step forward with some impressive features that will push the limits of current fighters today in terms of speed, exceeding Mach 2, and stealth technology to rival the F-22 which is considered the stealthiest fighter to date.

The Next Generation Air Dominance program, also known as NGAD, is a competition that started with three major defense companies, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, all battling for the prestigious contract. The goal of the project is to engineer the most advanced fighter jet ever constructed and also be the replacement for the F-22. Northrop Grumman, the manufacturer who built the insanely expensive B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, voluntarily withdrew from the NGAD program in 2023, leaving Lockheed and Boeing to compete for the contract head-to-head, with both companies building secret prototypes that were mostly hidden from the public. Until now, no test aircraft has been released, and no complete images of either prototype exist publicly, keeping the evolution of future jet fighters tightly under wraps.

The decision-making process for the NGAD was different for this situation compared to other major defense programs. U.S. Air Force acting senior acquisition executive Darlene Costello approved the selection made by an evaluation team, instead of a higher-level Pentagon official who usually makes the final choice. To make sure that decisions are bias-free and are not influenced, the identity of the evaluation team’s leader is kept secret. We may not know what “the best overall value” actually means exactly, but one thing is for sure — Boeing’s prototype and overall package must have offered features at a price Lockheed Martin couldn’t match.

The F-47 designation breaks away from the normal numbering sequence typically used for American fighter jets, which numbers usually increase consecutively, like how the F-16 followed the F-15, for example. The F-35 had already broken this pattern for undocumented reasons, but the F-47 reasons are a little more meaningful. According to a tweet by General Davis Allvin, the jet is meant to pay tribute to the World War II era legendary fighter P-47 Thunderbolt, recognize the U.S. Air Force founding year in 1947, and show appreciation to the 47th POTUS, Donald Trump, for his support of the program. That being said, it’s now up to Boeing to deliver on its promise and turn the prototype into a reality, featuring all of the bells and whistles expected by government and military leaders, while avoiding more disastrous blunders to further tarnish its already fragile reputation.

Having already won the defense contract and the vote of confidence from the U.S. Air Force, Boeing has an incredible opportunity to reestablish itself publicly. Although ambitious, General Allvin announced targeting the next four years to make F-47s operational. However, Breaking Defense stated that the F-47 will fly during this administration, but an exact time frame is not provided.