mm-news-@dmin Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth decided to move ahead with a selection on Friday.
- New Navy fighter jet pits Boeing vs Northrop.
- Announcement likely this week, says source.
- Hegseth signed off on the advancing plan last week.
After months of delay, the Pentagon plans to select the defence company to design and build the Navy’s next stealth fighter as soon as this week, according to a US official and two people familiar with the decision. The multibillion-dollar jet is central to US efforts to counter China.
Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp are competing to be chosen to produce the aircraft, dubbed the F/A-XX. The new carrier-based jet will replace the Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fleet, which has been in service since the 1990s.
The decision to move ahead with a selection was made by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday, the US official and one of the people said.
The US Navy could announce the winner of the competition to build its fighter as soon as this week, one of the people said. But last-minute snags have delayed progress on the Navy jet in the past and could do so again, sources said.
The Navy and the Pentagon did not respond to several requests for comment.
Holdups on F/A-XX highlight broader questions about the future of naval aviation and the role of aircraft carriers in confronting China. Delaying the program or starving it of funds could leave the Navy without a modern fighter capable of operating from carriers in the 2030s and beyond, potentially undermining the fleet’s ability to project power.
The F/A-XX is expected to feature advanced stealth capabilities, improved range and endurance, and engineers plan for it to integrate with both uncrewed combat aircraft and the Navy’s carrier-based air defense systems.
Roman Schweizer, an analyst at TD Cowen, said China has aggressively prototyped 6th-generation aircraft and deployed 5th-generation fighters and bombers, so the award could be seen as an important move to keep pace.
Delay
A funding dispute in the spring and summer between the Pentagon and Congress delayed the program’s advancement.
The Pentagon sought $74 million for the jet to keep it on “minimal development funding.” Some Pentagon officials had sought to delay the program by up to three years, citing concerns about engineering and supply chain capacity, Reuters reported in May.
Congress and the Navy had wished to move forward with awarding a contract. Congress allocated $750 million to accelerate the F/A-XX jet program in the massive tax-cut and spending bill, which lawmakers signed into law this summer. Additionally, Congress earmarked an additional $1.4 billion for F/A-XX in fiscal 2026.
Beyond the funding dispute, there was also debate during the months-long delay about whether defence contractors Northrop and Boeing would struggle to make the jet on schedule.
Sources said defence officials debated whether Boeing could hire enough engineers for the project after awarding it a contract in March to build the US Air Force’s F-47 jet. They also debated whether Northrop would strain under the ballooning costs of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program, aimed at replacing the aging Minuteman III missiles, the sources said.
The quantity of F/A-XX jets, the value and exact timelines of the program remain classified, but previous such contracts — such as that for the F-35 — have been worth tens of billions of dollars over their lifetime.
The US Navy still plans to buy more than 270 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35C jets for its carrier fleet. Earlier this year, Lockheed Martin was ejected from the F/A-XX competition.
The first production jets are expected to enter service in the 2030s, while F/A-18s are expected to remain in service into the 2040s.
