Key Points – US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a June 10th hearing before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, made the case for a $3.5 billion investment in the Air Force’s new F-47 sixth-generation stealth fighter.
-The F-47, a drone-coordinating combat jet designed to counter China, reportedly boasts a 70% greater combat radius than the F-22 Raptor and “Stealth++” capabilities.
-Hegseth’s push for the F-47 is part of a broader Pentagon strategy to prioritize next-generation platforms, even at the cost of other programs, such as the Navy’s F/A-XX fighter, which faces potential funding diversions to support the Air Force’s new jet.
F-47 Fighter in 2 Words: Truly Needed?
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the case on Tuesday for a next-generation fighter jet that he says will define American air dominance for years to come.
Appearing before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, Hegseth outlined a part of a broader Pentagon strategy aimed at reducing dependency on legacy systems and investing in new, more advanced technology that ensures the United States is prepared for combat against even its largest adversaries.
During the hearing, Hegseth revealed plans to invest $3.5 billion in the F-47 stealth fighter, a drone-coordinating combat jet designed to outmaneuver Chinese air defenses and new fighters.
The proposal is one of the first public disclosures of the Trump administration’s 2026 procurement priorities.
“President Trump has charged us with making the big difficult decisions after a lot of deferred maintenance and deferred decisions to ignore parochial priorities, in large part, and focus on what the department needs and where it needs it and when it needs it,” Hegseth said on June 10, adding that his department will be forced to make “some tough calls.”
Among those tough calls? The likelihood that the development of the platform would take away vital resources from the F/A-XX, a Navy-led effort to design, manufacture, and deploy a next-generation fighter jet.
At present, Republican House appropriators are offering $3.2 billion for the program next year, slightly short of Hegseth’s request, with $400 million set aside in a Republican-led reconciliation bill to facilitate the production of the new jet. Boeing will begin building the new jet as part of a $20 billion contract, with the entire project expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars in total.
What is the F-47?
While shrouded in secrecy, the Air Force’s F-47 is slowly coming into view, and a host of new features have already been confirmed by the Air Force.
The sixth-generation fighter jet is expected to outperform both the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II, with a 70% improved combat radius compared to the Raptor that will see the jet travel more than 1,000 nautical miles.
That added range means fewer midair refuels, improved flexibility for Pacific operations, and more breathing room for the vulnerable tanker fleet that would otherwise need to fly closer to contested airspace.
According to an infographic shared by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, the jet will also be able to travel at speeds exceeding Mach 2, and will feature “Stealth++” capabilities – an improvement over the F-22’s “Stealth+” designation. The terms, while not official designations, are shorthand labels used to communicate the relative levels of stealth among the Air Force’s various kinds of aircraft.
The F-47 is expected to be operational before 2029, but the Air Force has not clarified whether that means the jet will have conducted its first public flight by then, or be ready to be deployed.
Given the time constraints and budget battles, however, it seems likely that the time frame could stretch into the 2030s.
About the Author:
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society. His latest book is The Truth Teller: RFK Jr. and the Case for a Post-Partisan Presidency.
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