The storied history of US air combat platforms runs the gamut of modern aviation, from the F-14 Tomcat to the F-15 Eagle, and on again to the F-16 Viper and the F-22 Raptor. So far so relatively chronological, at least until US President Donald Trump announces the new F-47 fighter.
Donald Trump is the 47th President of the United States.
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The US President’s unexpected announcement of the impending contract award to Boeing of the crewed fighter element of the US Air Force’s (USAF) NGAD sixth generation fighter programme in a press huddle in the Oval Office on 21 March appeared to catch defence observers, and potentially even industry, off guard.
At the time of Trump’s initial disclosure, apparent winning NGAD bidder Boeing had not posted on its online news pages, nor had future operator, the USAF.
Both subsequently followed with statements, as reported by Airforce Technology.
“Nothing in the world comes even close to it, and it’ll be known as the F-47,” Trump told reporters in the White House.
Can F-47 fly before Trump leaves office?
A claim reported by international media was that the F-47 will fly before Donald Trump leaves office for the second and final time in 2028.
The NGAD fighter, now the F-47, is expected to replace the F-22 Raptor from around 2030. The speed of development speaks of an iterative approach the combat air design that refines the stealth concept seen on the F-22 and later F-35 and augmenting its capabilities with networked drones and other uncrewed systems.
As with the UK-led GCAP programme, also intending to deliver a sixth-generation fighter, it is possible that the F-47 will be to fifth generation combat aircraft what the later variants of the US F-16 fighter, and European platforms like the Eurofighter and Dassault Rafale, were to the fourth generation.
In effect, the F-47 ‘Trump fighter’ will more likely be a 5.5 generation air combat platform. Should this be the case, then a flight before Trump leaves office is certainly possible.
Leveraging and updating existing technologies could be a strategy – examples such as the B-21 has seen the contractor (in this case, Northrop Grumman) iterate on their previous design (the B-2 Spirit).
Do allies really want it?
Another claim heard by reporters in the Oval Office was that US allies were already clamouring for the fighter.
“Our allies are calling constantly,” Trump said, reported by Reuters.
This is doubtful. The F-22 Raptor, the platform that the F-47 will replace, was excluded from export due to its advanced stealth and air combat capability, lest potential adversaries learn more of the aircraft’s performance.
European allies are turning away from US military equipment in light of a pivot by the US towards Russia.
The US’ Pacific ally Japan is engaged in the UK-led GCAP fighter effort, likely to deliver a comparable platform, albeit five years later.
Saudi Arabia is a possibility, although it was thought to be considering the GCAP platform as well.
Few other countries would seek to acquire the future F-47 in enough numbers to warrant export, and those that might be interested, China and Russia, are in theory adversaries.
Truth be told, more details are needed before defence observers will be able to determine if the F-47 can hit its targets.
