NGAD: America’s New $300 Million Stealth Fighter Is Now on a ‘Pause’

NGAD: U.S. Air Force Next-Generation Could Cost Less, But It Will Lost Its Best Features – The U.S. Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter is not really shrouded in the kind of secrecy that you would associate with the hush-hush DARPA or Skunk Works. It seems that every day, the NGAD makes some news, and it is confusing to keep up with the project’s direction or even if it will ever be a funded acquisition program.

(ILLUSTRATION) — An artist illustration shows a flight of unmanned weapons carriers escorted by a sixth generation air dominance fighter during a combat mission over an undisclosed location. Mike Tsukamoto/staff; Airman 1st Class Erin Baxte.

We know this much: the Air Force doesn’t want a $300 million warplane.

Let’s Stop This Program Until We Know the Cost

The Air Force has placed the NGAD on pause as it is seen as too expensive and undeveloped design-wise. Most NGAD news comes from the mouth of the loquacious Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall who always seems like he is out over his skis when addressing the media.

$300 Million Each Is Too High

Now, the NGAD, once estimated at as high as $300 million an airplane, could be cheaper, perhaps even less expensive than the F-35. Kendall wants to give Congress some relief as it figures out the FY26 defense budget. If the NGAD could get its top-line price down, it is more likely to be funded.

Cutting Cost Reduces Capabilities

Of course, that means the Air Force’s wish list of features and specs could be curtailed. For example, the NGAD may now have only one engine instead of two. To make matters more confusing for the NGAD, the Air Force may also request a Next-Generation Air Re-fueling System (NGAS) that would bump up the ancillary cost for the NGAD. It seems that the Air Force cannot decide on what this program will consist of and that spells trouble.

NGAD. Image Credit. Lockheed Martin.

After revealing the new NGAS feature, Kendall told reporters about the cost he foresees for the NGAD (pardon the alphabet soup of acronyms).

Could It Cost the Same Or Cheaper Than the F-35?

“The F-35 kind of represents, to me, the upper bounds of what we’d like to pay. That would peg the target price at between $80 million and $100 million, a fraction of the ‘multiple hundreds of millions of dollars’” Kendall said. “I’d like to go lower, though.”

Eighty to one hundred million dollars will be more palatable to Congress and defense spending watchdogs who sniff out boondoggles.

Loyal Wingman or CCA Is the Coolest Feature

One of the features of the NGAD that I always discuss is the “Loyal Wingman” concept. This would be a mostly autonomous unmanned aircraft tethered to the NGAD. This drone can go into attack mode or collect intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data and report that back to command and control.

NGAD. Image Credit: Creative Commons

What Is This CCA?

The Air Force has now re-named the Loyal Wingman to the moniker Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). This aircraft would add to the NGAD cost, and it will likely have to be reduced in scope or eliminated, which would hurt the efficacy of the proposed NGAD. CCA is estimated to cost an additional $25 million per NGAD.

Without the CCA addition, the NGAD is less appealing. Why spend all that money just to replace the F-22, when you have the F-35 already?

As it looks now, NGAD seems like a rather pedestrian airplane that doesn’t have the whizbang features you would expect. It once had interesting specs, but now it won’t. This doesn’t make sense.

Can You Keep a Lid On It?

I blame Kendall for this confusion. This guy talks too much. U.S. adversaries can simply listen to Kendall share details about the NGAD in open-source publications. Based on what Kendall reveals, China and Russia can then repurpose their own sixth-generation fighters to equal or overcome the NGAD.

Kendall said he wants to stay on in his role of secretary when a new administration comes on after the election. He seems like a nice guy who is quotable and pleasant to the press, but I recommend more discretion. The more he publicly talks about NGAD, the more U.S. adversaries learn about it. It is good that the Air Force is trying to reduce the cost of the next-generation fighter. We can all breathe a sigh of relief that it won’t cost $300 million per unit, but Kendall will have to figure out what features and capabilities will be associated with the NGAD at the cheaper price, or the whole thing is a fool’s errand.

About the Author: Dr. Brent M. Eastwood

Brent M. Eastwood, PhD, is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare, plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for U.S. Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former U.S. Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.