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Boeing beats out Lockheed to scoop NGAD $20 billion contract

21st March 2025 - 15:55 GMT | by Lucy Powell in London

RSS

The F-47 sixth-generation aircraft will stand as the “crown jewel” in the USAF, according to Air Force Secretary General David W. Allvin. (Photo: Boeing)

Designated ‘F-47’, the sixth-generation fighter will serve as a replacement for Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor, currently in service with the USAF.

The US Pentagon has awarded the contract for its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) programme to Boeing, President Donald Trump has announced.

Boeing’s award comes after years of delays to the programme, which was originally launched in 2014. Designated as the ‘F-47’, Trump commented that the crewed fighter jet “will be the most lethal aircraft ever built”. An experimental version of the plane has been flying for “over five years” according to the President.

Described as a ‘family of systems’ NGAD is the USAF’s answer to a sixth-gen air superiority programme that is centred around a fixed-wing crewed fighter aircraft,

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