Fate Of Navy's F/A-XX Future Fighter Is In Limbo

Yahoo

14-05-2025

The future of the U.S. Navy's F/A-XX sixth-generation stealth fighter program is still being reviewed by the Pentagon, White House, and Congress, a U.S. official told TWZ on Wednesday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations, responded to our questions about a published report that a contract award, potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars, could be delayed by as much as three years.
'Nothing is being delayed,' the official stated. 'A decision hasn't been made yet. That decision is still being determined by [the Pentagon] and service leaders, with conversations among Congress as well. It's a big program. Obviously these things don't get settled on by one individual. Leaders are making a decision on whether to invest. It's all part of the process.'
The Navy has previously said its goal is for the first F/A-XX aircraft, intended to replace F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters and EA-18G Growler electronic attack jets, to enter service in the 2030s.
The F/A-XX 'is expected to feature superior range, speed, and sensor capabilities, with an emphasis on integrating manned and unmanned systems,' a 2025 Naval Aviation Playbook put out by the office of the Commander of Naval Air Forces, currently Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, in March. 'This includes collaboration with autonomous drones serving as force multipliers and electronic warfare assets.'
'The Navy remains committed to the F/A-XX program, recognizing its importance in future force structure and design,' the document adds. 'Efforts are underway to balance near-term investments with the development of this next-generation platform.'
However, a funding dispute pitting the sea service and some members of Congress against the White House has threatened to derail that timeline and cancel the program as currently defined, Reuters reported Wednesday morning.
'While the Navy wants to move forward with awarding a contract, some Pentagon officials are seeking to delay the program by up to three years,' Reuters wrote, citing three sources with knowledge of the program. Those sources said that 'concerns about engineering and production capacity' were at issue. The report did not elaborate further.
On March 25, Reuters had reported that the Navy was going to announce the contract award for the F/A-XX engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase 'this week' based on information the wire service received from unnamed 'people familiar with the decision.'
The award remains pending.
Originally, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman were all in the running to develop the F/A-XX. However, Lockheed Martin was reportedly eliminated from the competition in March, because its proposal 'did not satisfy the service's criteria,' according to Breaking Defense, whose story cited an unnamed source with knowledge of the program.
Delaying the award of a contract by three years 'would effectively cancel the program as it is currently defined,' Reuters explained, 'because contracts and pricing would expire during that time making a new competition almost inevitable.'
TWZ cannot independently verify that claim, and the official we spoke with declined to offer specifics about the ongoing negotiations.
As further proof that F/A-XX is in danger, Reuters noted that 'Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's cost assessment office plans to slash funding for the next-generation jet's development by shifting the $454 million that Congress provided for the F/A-XX in the fiscal year 2025 budget to other programs.'
The Pentagon 'is separately preparing to ask Congress not to provide $500 million for the program which it had included in a pending reconciliation bill to help to accelerate the new jet's development,' the three sources told the wire service.
The official we spoke with said no funding decisions about the F/A-XX have yet been made, adding that there is 'no sense of when' that might happen.
'It's not like there's a hard deadline,' the official posited. 'This is all in the context of budget decisions. We are discussing the Fiscal Year 2025 budget and beyond. Discussions are ongoing about where to invest defense dollars.
The Pentagon declined to comment. We also reached out to the White House, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing for confirmation and more details, and we will update this story with any pertinent information provided.
News of a potential delay in the program comes after the Navy revealed last month that the F/A-XX would offer just a 25 percent increase in range over the existing tactical combat jets in its carrier air wings. As we noted at the time, 'the disclosure was surprising, given that the service consistently makes it clear that extending the reach of its carrier strike groups is a critical priority as the range of expected threats also continues to grow.'
In April, Navy Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly, director of the Air Warfare Division (N98) within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, also said his service was 'definitely in the follow' behind the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps in work on the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) type drones expected to operate together with the F/A-XX. Delays in both efforts could be aligned.
The debate now over the future of F/A-XX is happening as the U.S. Air Force is moving ahead with the development of its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) crewed tactical fighter, now dubbed the F-47. In March, Boeing was awarded a contract to build at least 185 of those jets.
'The F-47 will fly during this administration,' an Air Force official told TWZ on Tuesday, after Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin posted a slide on X offering new details about that program. Among other information, Allvin shared that the F-47 will have a combat radius in excess of 1,000 nautical miles, a significant improvement over the existing fleet of fighters, but also not as large as some may have expected. You can read more about it in our story here.
As internal deliberations rage over the future of the F/A-XX program, which is being designed in large measure to be able to fight in the Pacific, China has already been flight testing its two next-generation fighter-like aircraft. One is commonly — but unofficially — called the J-36, and the other the J-XDS, also referred to as the J-50.
TWZ has previously published a highly detailed analysis of both the J-36 and J-XDS/J-50, which readers can find here.
Overall, the Navy's F/A-XX program has been even more secretive than the Air Force equivalent. However, as we have explored in the past, the jet will be central not only to the Navy's future tactical aviation plans, but also to the future of the service more generally.
Similarly, major changes to the F/A-XX program now would have larger ramifications for the Navy's aviation plans, including likely compelling the service to rely longer than expected on its aging fleets of Super Hornets and Growlers. More resources could also be pushed toward the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter as a result.
A major delay or cancellation of the Navy's NGAD crewed tactical fighter program would be a huge setback for the sea service.
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