Boeing wins Navy next-gen fighter F/A-XX competition

WASHINGTON — The Navy has chosen Boeing to build its sixth-generation strike fighter, dubbed F/A-XX, providing it a dominant position as the Pentagon’s primary producer for future fighter jets, two sources told Breaking Defense.

The selection locks Boeing in as the sole supplier of sixth-generation fighters for the US. In March 2025, Boeing won the right to develop and produce the Air Force’s next-gen fighter, dubbed the F-47.

The two wins collectively will put Boeing in a position to ice out both its biggest competitors — Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman — from the sixth-generation American fighter jet marketplace for the foreseeable future, a shocking turnaround for a firm that in early 2025 was at serious risk of ending its fighter production entirely in the coming years. (Lockheed will continue building the fifth-gen F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.)

The Navy and Boeing declined to comment ahead of a contract award. Northrop did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The F/A-XX program has had a windy path to this point.

Shortly after the Air Force awarded the F-47 contract, there were rumors that F/A-XX would be next — and then the program seemingly stalled out. In July 2025, the White House declared that moving forward with the Navy fighter would imperil F-47’s success, and officials inside the department quarreled over whether to move forward with the jet. Congress and Navy brass, meanwhile, insisted it will be a crucial part of the air wing of the future .

The Navy has kept public information about the program to a minimum, though officials have said the F/A-XX will boast a greater range than current aircraft and serve as a stealthy tip of the spear for the carrier air wing. The next-gen fighter is expected to replace the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler.

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Yet the competition for F/A-XX has been one of the most highly anticipated contract awards for the service outside of its shipbuilding portfolio. Once operational, the new aircraft will join the service’s warships to complement Lockheed’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and a to-be-determined Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

The Navy effort is also referred to as the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter, sharing that name with what is now the Air Force’s F-47 program. And while many outside observers previously speculated there may be overlap between the two next-gen fighter efforts beyond their names, Navy officials have repeatedly stated that the service’s fighter will have a separate airframe from the Air Force, eschewing the joint approach controversially used for the F-35 program.

Diana Stancy contributed to this report. This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

华盛顿——据《防务新闻》报道，两名消息人士透露，美国海军已选择波音公司建造其第六代攻击战斗机，代号为 F/A-XX，这将使波音公司在五角大楼未来战斗机的主要生产商中占据主导地位。

此次中标锁定波音公司作为美国第六代战斗机的唯一供应商。2025年3月，波音公司赢得为美国空军研发和生产下一代战斗机（代号F-47）的权利。

这两项胜利将使波音公司在可预见的未来，将两大竞争对手——洛克希德·马丁公司和诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司——排除在第六代美国战斗机市场之外。对于这家在2025年初还面临着未来几年内彻底停止战斗机生产的严重风险的公司来说，这是一个令人震惊的转变。（洛克希德公司将继续生产第五代F-35联合攻击战斗机。）

在合同授予之前，海军和波音公司均拒绝置评。诺斯罗普公司尚未对此事作出回应。

F/A-XX 项目走到今天这一步可谓历经坎坷。

空军授予F-47合同后不久，便有传言称F/A-XX将是下一个项目——但随后该项目似乎陷入停滞。2025年7月，白宫宣称推进海军战斗机项目将危及F-47的成功，国防部内部官员就是否推进该项目争论不休。与此同时，国会和海军高层则坚称，F/A-XX将是未来空军的重要组成部分。

海军一直将该项目的公开信息控制在最低限度，但官员们表示，F/A-XX的航程将比现有战机更远，并将成为航母舰载机联队的隐形先锋。这款下一代战斗机预计将取代波音F/A-18“超级大黄蜂”和EA-18G“咆哮者”。

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然而，F/A-XX的竞标是该军种在造船业务之外最受瞩目的合同授予项目之一。一旦投入使用，这款新型战机将加入该军种的军舰，与洛克希德·马丁公司的F-35联合攻击战斗机和一款尚未确定的协同作战飞机形成互补。

海军的这项计划也被称为“下一代空中优势战斗机”，与空军目前的F-47项目同名。尽管许多外界观察人士此前猜测，除了名称之外，这两个下一代战斗机项目可能存在重叠之处，但海军官员一再声明，海军的战斗机将采用与空军不同的独立机身，从而避免采用F-35项目备受争议的联合研发模式。

戴安娜·斯坦西对本报道亦有贡献。这是一则突发新闻，我们将持续更新。