F-47
The Air Force's next air dominance fighter, the quarterback of a pack of drone wingmen.
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ROLE
Land-based air dominance: hunting enemy fighters and commanding drone wingmen.
STRENGTHS
- Combat radius over 1,000 nautical miles
- Designed as the quarterback of a CCA team
- Cost-plus-incentive contract shares overrun risk (per a USAF official)
WEAKNESSES
- Needs runways and tankers that China would target first
- Up to about $300 million per aircraft (CBO est.)
- First flight only "in this administration", reported for 2028
The F-47 is the result of the Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance program, awarded to Boeing in March 2025. Its job is to hunt enemy fighters and command collaborative combat aircraft, the drone wingmen that fly ahead of it.
The Air Force plans more than 185 aircraft and a combat radius of more than 1,000 nautical miles. Officially it will fly "in this administration"; press reports put the first flight in 2028. Our analysis: it gets that range largely by being big and carrying a lot of fuel, which is exactly why the Navy could not simply take it to sea.
