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U.S. President Donald Trump awarded Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab on Friday the contract to build the U.S. Air Force's most sophisticated fighter jet yet, dubbed the F-47, handing the company a much-needed win.
The Next Generation Air Dominance program will replace Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor with a crewed aircraft built to enter combat alongside drones.
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U.S. President Donald Trump with image of F-47 fighter jet
(Photo: Annabelle Gordon / AFP)
Trump, the 47th president, announced the new jet's name, the F-47. "We've given an order for a lot. We can't tell you the price," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "Our allies are calling constantly," Trump added, saying foreign sales could be an option. "They want to buy them also."
For Boeing, the win marks a reversal of fortune for a company that has struggled on both the commercial and defense sides of its business. It is a major boost for its St. Louis, Missouri, fighter jet production business.
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The engineering and manufacturing development contract is worth more than $20 billion. The winner will eventually receive hundreds of billions of dollars in orders over the contract's multi-decade lifetime.
Shares of Boeing rose 4% after the news. The U.S. company beat out Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), opens new tab for the deal. Lockheed's shares fell nearly 7%.
The plane's design remains a closely held secret, but would likely include stealth, advanced sensors, and cutting-edge engines. "Compared to the F-22, the F-47 will cost less and be more adaptable to future threats - and we will have more of the F-47s in our inventory," said Chief of Staff of the Air Force General David Allvin.
Boeing and Lockheed did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
NGAD was conceived as a "family of systems" centered around a sixth-generation fighter to counter adversaries such as China and Russia. Allvin added the F-47 will have significantly longer range, more advanced stealth, and will be more sustainable and more easily supported than the F-22.