Key Points and Summary – At the AFA Air, Space & Cyber Conference, USAF Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin revealed Boeing’s first F-47 NGAD airframe is already being assembled, with a goal to fly in 2028.
-Framing NGAD as the centerpiece of a broader “family of systems,” Allvin also prioritized semi-autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft and sustained B-21 Raider progress—the second B-21 will test weapons and mission systems.
NGAD. Image Credit: Creative Commons
-He cited June’s Operation Midnight Hammer to underscore readiness.
-Designed with Indo-Pacific demands in mind, the F-47 is expected to exceed a 1,000-mile combat radius, with a notional buy of 185 aircraft subject to strategic needs.
-The mission is simple: Get into the air and fast.
USAF Chief Allvin: First F-47 NGAD Already Being Built
WARSAW, POLAND – On Monday, September 22, outgoing United States Air Force (USAF) Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin announced that the first F-47 Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter is already under construction and will be ready to fly in 2028. Allvin revealed the details of the program’s status during his keynote address at the Air Force Association (AFA) Air, Space & Cyber Conference.
“It’s the platform that, along with all of the rest of the systems, is going to ensure dominance into the future. We’ve got to go fast,” Allvin said. “I’ve got to tell you, team, it’s almost 2026. The team is committed to getting the first one flying in 2028.”
This news comes exactly six months after President Donald Trump’s March 21 Oval Office broadcast in which he announced Boeing had won the contract for the first-ever USAF 6th-generation fighter.
“In the few short months since we made the announcement, they are already beginning to manufacture the first article,” Allvin said, referring to the first test aircraft. “We’re ready to go fast. We have to go fast.”
(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.
Allvin detailed that Boeing has already begun to assemble the initial airframe of the new aircraft. The program office is hoping to achieve this first flight in slightly over two years, said Allvin. His address at this event on the F-47 will be one of his final major speeches before he retires this fall.
F-47, Operations and Readiness
Allvin described the USAF needing to modernize, with the design and production of semi-autonomous collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) one of the top priorities. These aircraft will work in concert with the F-47 and other USAF platforms.
In addition to these tactical aircraft programs, Allvin is calling for continued work on the B-21 Raider stealth bomber.
This airframe is the second prototype for this program and has been recently rolled out of the Northrop main assembly facility. It is billed as being ready for any potential conflict that would require an aircraft with this profile.
“We’re following through on ensuring and advocating for the readiness that we need to be able to fight today to demonstrate we can pop the jab, and we can put them on the canvas,” Allvin said. This point was made in reference to Operation Midnight Hammer, the June attack by the US on Iranian nuclear weapons development facilities.
This attack required more than 125 US aircraft, including seven B-2 bombers, as well as F-16s, F-22s, and F-35 fighters.
The B-2s carried Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker-busting bombs, and their mission was launched from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. The overall round-trip for the mission was 36 hours, which required KC-135 and KC-46 aerial refueling tankers.
The World Beyond 2025
The Pentagon’s focus on the rising military might of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is one of the chief justifications for the F-47.
It has been a primary driver of the aircraft’s performance requirements. The US has other states that aggressively declare America as their enemy and work to cause harm to its interests: Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba.
However, these nations are not endowed with the resources that the PRC enjoys and do not pose a comparable level of conventional and nuclear threats to Beijing. It is therefore understandable that the F-47 is intended to have a combat radius that exceeds 1000 miles.
That radius is almost twice that of the current US air superiority fighter, the F-22.
So far, the USAF plan is to procure 185 of the aircraft, although it is unclear if those numbers could change based on developments in the Asia-Pacific theatre of operations.
That is the region of the world where the aircraft is envisioned to play the most crucial role, and the numbers may change based on what emerges from the PRC’s secretive fighter production facilities.
Allvin emphasized that “we’re paying attention to tomorrow. The plan is sort of in place. I’m ready to keep moving. There’s a lot of change going on right now. And it’s perfectly natural to say, let’s catch your breath a bit. Let’s sort of take stock of things. But in this environment, with the consequences on the other side of it, we have to beware of the familiar.”
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
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