Air Force boots decision on 6th-gen fighter to Trump admin

The Air Force is punting a decision on the direction of its 6th-generation stealth fighter jet to the Trump administration, and asking industry to update their proposals in light of the delay.

“The Secretary of the Air Force will defer the Next Generation Air Dominance way ahead decision to the next administration, while the Department of the Air Force continues its analysis and executes the necessary actions to ensure decision space remains intact for the NGAD program,” Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said in a statement today.

The service paused its NGAD program earlier this year after initial projections put the cost of the fighter at three times the cost of an F-35 and the advent of new technologies and threats have altered how the service views air superiority.

The new administration’s views on NGAD remain to be seen. The defense chapter of Project 2025, penned by former Trump acting defense secretary Christopher Miller, supports a “next-generation air dominance system of systems,” but does not explicitly mention a crewed aircraft in its calls for new weapons, drones, and sensors. Elon Musk, a key adviser of the president-elect, has been vocal about his dislike for manned fighters.

The Air Force originally planned to pick a builder for a fighter jet by year’s end, with Lockheed Martin and Boeing in the running. Northrop Grumman bowed out of the competition last year, but has expressed interest in jumping back in depending on how the service changes requirements for the sixth-gen jet. 

While the fate of NGAD remains unknown, Stefanek said the Air Force is “extending the current Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction contracts for the Next Generation Air Dominance program to further mature designs/systems while ensuring the industry teams remain intact.” Industry will “update their proposals to account for the delays resulting from the current pause (schedule/milestone update only),” she said.