Boeing Beats Lockheed Martin, and This F-47 Fighter Jet Contract Could Be Worth Hundreds of Billions
Boeing is back in the fighter jet business!
Well, this was certainly unexpected.
For more than a decade, the U.S. Pentagon has been mulling the idea of replacing its fifth-generation stealth fighter jets, and its F-22 Raptor in particular, with a new sixth generation of fighter jets designed for stealth, air superiority, and interoperability with unmanned drone aircraft assistants. Dubbed the Next Generation Air Dominance program, or NGAD, the new fighter would cost "several" hundred million dollars, or roughly twice the cost of the F-22.
In fact, the Pentagon expected it would cost at least $16 billion just to complete the development of the new fighter before even buying the first plane (which would enter service sometime in the 2030s). The development of "loyal wingman" drones to fly in tandem with the new fighter would then cost even more to develop and build. In total, I was able to estimate a total cost of approximately $1.7 billion for each grouped unit of one NGAD and three drones.
