Key Points and Summary on the F/A-XX Fighter – The U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter program, essential for replacing the aging F/A-18 Super Hornet fleet, has been effectively paused by the Pentagon.
-In the FY 2026 budget, the Trump administration has prioritized the Air Force’s F-47 NGAD with $3.5 billion in funding, while allocating a mere $74 million to the F/A-XX to keep the design phase on life support.
-The official reason is that the defense industrial base can only handle one major stealth fighter program at a time, a decision that creates a dangerous future capability gap for naval aviation as China pushes ahead with its own sixth-generation fighters.
FA/XX Program Is Paused. Is That a Mistake?
In the *mostly* friendly world of interservice rivalry and one-upmanship, both the United States Navy and United States Air Force have aspirations to build a sixth-generation fighter jet.
However, whilst the USAF’s F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program—after a brief period of uncertainty about its future—has been given the proverbial green light to proceed past Mach speed in both the literal and figurative sense, the USN’s F/A-XX is stuck in neutral due to a pregnant pause in the program.
Interservice bragging rights aside, one must ask: Why has the F/A-XX been placed on pause, and is this a mistake?
Initial History F/A-XX Program Origins and Conceptualization
The FA/XX is envisioned both as a replacement for the Navy’s 4.5 Generation Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet (which made its maiden flight way back in November 1995) and EA-18G Growler (August 2006 maiden flight) and as a complement to the 5th Generation Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II (which debuted in February 2019 and was first “blooded” in real-world combat in November 2024 during the aerial campaign against the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen). Ideally, the program is expected to come to fruition sometime in the 2030s.
NOTE: In military aviation parlance, “F/A” stands for “fighter-attack,” signifying the multirole capabilities for both air-to-air combat and surface strike—terra firma missions such as close air support (CAS) and the surface of the sea alike, that is—thus embodying the famous dictum of early 20th century airpower theorist Gen. Giulio Douhet that “Flexibility is the key to airpower.”
The F/A-XX concept dates back to April 2012, when the Navy submitted a request for information (RFI). The RFI outlined platform requirements, including supercruise capabilities, advanced next-generation stealth features, sensors, and radars with networking adaptability. For good measure, the RFI also called for capabilities in air-to-air refueling, Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition (RSTA), as well as electronic warfare and countermeasures. In other words, a true jack-of-all-trades.
In 2023, then-Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Carlos Del Toro requested $1.53 billion for the development of the program.
F/A-XX Fighter: Technical Specs
These details, of course, remain sketchy and shrouded in mystery, since the prototype hasn’t yet been built, nor has a contract been awarded. However, Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly has stated that the F/A-XX will feature a 25 percent increase in range compared to the Super Hornet and Lightning. It will be purpose-built to operate closely with UAVs in a “man-on-the-loop” style control process.
Trouble In Paradise
In fairness, the pause in the F/A-XX doesn’t mean being completely frozen. Still, instead being given a minimal survival budget, as explained by Joseph Trevithick of TWZ in a June 27, 2025 article titled “Pentagon ‘All In’ On Air Force’s F-47, Puts Navy’s F/A-XX On Ice.”
Therein, Mr. Trevithick quotes an unnamed Pentagon official’s statement that “We are maintaining a request of $74 million for the F/A-XX program in this budget to complete the design of that aircraft. We did make a strategic decision to go all in on F-47…due to our belief that the industrial base can only handle going fast on one program at this time, and the presidential priority to go all in on F-47, and get that program right.”
That same Pentagon official made it clear that the door wasn’t being completely shut on the Navy’s program, as funding the completion of the design work will allow for “maintaining the option for F/A-XX in the future.”
Where To from Here?
The sense of urgency to replace the Super Hornets is especially keen in light of a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report dated February 9, 2023, which notes that they’re actually deteriorating at a faster rate than the standard F/A-18 Hornets, which preceded them in Navy service by 11 years! Meanwhile, for all of its impressive stealth technology features, the F-35C is already showing some vulnerabilities: (1) back in March 2025, one of them experienced a discombobulating near-miss from a Houthi surface-to-air missile (SAM); and (2) moreover, Russian and Chinese VHF (Very High Frequency) radars such as the Nebo-M, Rezonans-NE, and JY-27A can now apparently detect the F-35 and cancel out its previous “invisibility.”
Meanwhile, China is already developing its own 6th-generation warbird, the Chengdu J-36, which made its maiden flight in prototype form on December 26, 2024 (coinciding with Chairman Mao Zedong’s birthday) and has a targeted operational debut date in 2035.
All of which leads to the conclusion that yes, pausing the F/A-XX is indeed a mistake. If the Pentagon’s bean counters give a damn about their Navy’s viability and survivability as an effective aerial combat force, they’d better un-pause the program sooner rather than later.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr, Defense Expert
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU).
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