Boeing is developing the F-22 successor. The F-47 is intended to fly farther, hide better and command uncrewed partners, but its defining feature remains secrecy.

America’s most important future fighter exists in public largely as a promise. Its final shape is classified, its weapons unnamed and its engine unselected. Yet Boeing’s F-47 is expected to fly before 2029, exceed a 1,000-nautical-mile combat radius and penetrate enemy air defences alongside autonomous aircraft. For the US Air Force it is not simply an F-22 replacement. It is the crewed command element of a new air-warfare system.

At a glance: The US Air Force awarded Boeing the F-47 Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract on 21 March 2025. The service plans more than 185 aircraft and has publicly stated a combat radius beyond 1,000 nautical miles, speed above Mach 2, more advanced stealth and teaming with Collaborative Combat Aircraft. First flight is planned before January 2029. Dimensions, engine choice, radar, weapon load and unit cost have not been disclosed.

Editorial cut-off: 15 August 2026. F-47 is a classified development programme. This article separates official statements from technical inference. The lead image is an AI-generated editorial concept, not a photograph of the secret aircraft.

Confirmed F-47 programme data

Item	Public position
Customer	United States Air Force
Prime contractor	Boeing
Programme	Next Generation Air Dominance crewed platform
Phase	Engineering and Manufacturing Development
Planned fleet	more than 185
Combat radius	more than 1,000 nm / about 1,850 km
Speed	above Mach 2
Planned first flight	before January 2029
Mission	air superiority and penetration of highly contested airspace
Industrial centre	greater St Louis, Missouri

The brevity matters. Public artwork is not a blueprint. Published images do not confirm wing planform, tails, intakes or exhausts, and anyone quoting precise span, weight, thrust or weapon-bay capacity is moving beyond verified information.

Why the Air Force needs it

The F-22 remains a formidable air-superiority fighter, but it was designed for another era. Its range, a small combat-coded fleet, high support burden and difficult-to-modify architecture constrain operations across the Pacific. Bases are far apart, tankers would be threatened and modern air-defence networks cover immense distances.

F-47 is intended to loosen that constraint. A radius beyond 1,000 nautical miles would substantially exceed the public F-22 figure. It would not eliminate reliance on bases and refuelling aircraft, but it would reduce it while allowing operations against linked radars, long-range missiles, electronic warfare systems, satellites and interceptors.

NGAD is a family, not a single jet

Next Generation Air Dominance is a family of systems. F-47 is its crewed penetrating counter-air platform. Collaborative Combat Aircraft, distributed sensors, space support, resilient communications and new weapons form the wider architecture.

That changes the pilot’s job. Uncrewed teammates may carry sensors, jam emitters, scout dangerous corridors or deliver additional missiles. The F-47 becomes a decision node able to assign tasks and fuse information, not merely a fighter with a drone following its wingtip. The military value comes from distributing risk and payload while protecting the human operator.

Stealth means reducing the enemy’s time

Advanced stealth does not mean invisibility. It reduces detection and tracking range and compresses the opponent’s reaction window. A deep-penetrating aircraft needs low signatures from multiple aspects rather than only a favourable head-on view.

Shape, radar-absorbing materials, buried engine faces, internal weapons, infrared management and disciplined emissions must work together. Sustainment is equally important. The Air Force promises higher availability, less manpower and a smaller deployment footprint than current fifth-generation aircraft. If coatings and access panels cannot be maintained quickly, theoretical stealth becomes operational scarcity.

Sensors and spectral warfare

Official descriptions confirm sensor fusion and interoperability but no specific radar or electro-optical system. F-47 will need to combine its own passive and active sensors with information from CCAs, satellites and other aircraft. The cockpit should present decisions, not a collection of unrelated displays.

Passive detection will be central because transmitting can reveal position. Electronic warfare therefore belongs inside the survival system: find and classify hostile emissions, deceive or jam sensors, protect friendly links and radiate only when the tactical advantage justifies the exposure.

Propulsion: XA102, XA103—or something else?

The Air Force has funded Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion alongside NGAD. General Electric is developing the XA102 and Pratt & Whitney the XA103. Adaptive engines are intended to trade airflow between high thrust, cruise efficiency and thermal management. That suits a long-range, power-hungry fighter.

It does not prove which engine F-47 will use. No public down-selection has been announced, and even the number of engines remains officially undisclosed. Mach 2-plus is a target; supercruise conditions, altitude and combat load are classified.

Weapons: distributed payload matters most

The Air Force has not published an F-47 weapon list. Internal bays are a strong technical expectation because external stores damage low observability. Long-range air-to-air missiles, suppression weapons and precision strike effects are plausible, but types and quantities remain unconfirmed.

The aircraft’s own magazine is only part of the concept. CCAs could carry additional weapons and fire on targeting data from the F-47 while the crewed fighter remains passive. This distributed magazine would complicate enemy planning, but it depends on resilient networks that continue to function under intense jamming.

From secret X-planes to development aircraft

According to then Air Force Chief of Staff General David Allvin, experimental NGAD X-planes flew hundreds of hours over five years. Those demonstrators matured technologies and operating concepts; they should not automatically be treated as prototypes of the final production shape.

Boeing’s contract covers maturation, integration, testing and a small fleet of development aircraft, with priced options for low-rate production. Digital engineering and a government-owned open architecture are intended to accelerate upgrades. First flight is promised before January 2029, but no public date exists for initial operational capability. Flight, weapons and software testing will take years.

Boeing’s industrial comeback

Boeing defeated Lockheed Martin after Northrop Grumman withdrew from the crewed-platform contest. The award preserves a second US centre for top-tier fighter design as F/A-18 and EA-18G production winds down. Boeing is investing billions in advanced combat-aircraft facilities around St Louis, where Phantom Works, digital engineering and fighter manufacturing converge.

Cost: development billions, no honest unit price

Pentagon FY2026 programme documents listed about $3.48 billion for F-47 development, integration and testing: roughly $2.58 billion in discretionary funding and $900 million in mandatory funding. The later regular defence appropriation provided about $3.08 billion according to the Congressional Research Service. These are development sums, not purchases of a stated number of aircraft.

The Air Force says F-47 will cost less than F-22, but has not defined a public metric. Procurement cost, operating cost and life-cycle cost are different measures, while F-22 suffered from a small production run. A defensible unit price cannot yet be calculated.

F-22, F-35A and F-47

Feature	F-22	F-35A	F-47
Primary role	air superiority	multirole strike and sensing	air superiority in highly contested airspace
Generation	fifth	fifth	described by USAF as sixth
Public combat radius	well below 1,000 nm	about 590 nm by profile	more than 1,000 nm planned
Speed	above Mach 2	Mach 1.6	above Mach 2 planned
CCA teaming	limited retrofit potential	planned integration	central from inception

F-47 does not replace F-35. The two have different emphases and are expected to fight together. F-22 will remain essential until a sufficiently large F-47 fleet exists, creating a long transition with three crewed stealth types.

Strengths and risks

• Range: addresses Pacific distances.
• Stealth and electronic warfare: enable penetration of integrated defences.
• CCA teaming: distributes sensors, weapons and risk.
• Open architecture: aims to speed upgrades.
• Industrial depth: sustains Boeing as a fighter prime.

The risks are equally serious: ambitious requirements drive cost and delay; adaptive propulsion and secure networks are difficult; autonomy must work under jamming; and classification limits scrutiny. More than 185 aircraft is a force objective, not a fully funded order.

Conclusion: the network is the weapon

F-47 will not be judged primarily by whether it turns more dramatically than F-22. Its purpose is to see first, decide first and create effects from farther away through range, stealth, data and uncrewed partners. Boeing must turn demonstrations into a maintainable aircraft, the Air Force must make CCA teaming operational and Congress must fund the effort for years.

If that works, F-47 will be less a new fighter than the command centre of a distributed air-combat system. If the network fails, even the most advanced aircraft will still be alone.

Frequently asked questions

Has the F-47 flown?

Experimental NGAD X-planes flew hundreds of hours. The actual crewed F-47 design is scheduled to fly before January 2029; no public first flight has been confirmed.

How many will be built?

The Air Force plans more than 185, but this is not yet a fully funded production order.

How fast and how far?

Public targets are above Mach 2 and a combat radius beyond 1,000 nautical miles.

What weapons will it carry?

No official list exists. Internal air-to-air and precision weapons are plausible, but types and quantities remain classified.

Official sources

• US Air Force: F-47 EMD contract award
• US Air Force Chief of Staff statement
• Department of Defense FY2026 weapon-system book
• Congressional Research Service: NGAD/F-47
• Boeing fighter portfolio