Boeing wins US Navy F/A-XX contract for sixth-generation fighter

Boeing has won the US Navy's sixth-generation fighter contract and will build its next carrier-based tactical aircraft, the F/A-XX, which has not yet been named.

The award follows Boeing's 2025 selection in the US Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance competition, which produced the F-47. Two sixth-generation programmes now sit with a single manufacturer, something the industry has not seen since Lockheed Martin won both the F-22 and F-35 efforts. Analysts quoted in the reporting put the initial phases of each programme at roughly $20 billion.

For Boeing's fighter business, the contract reverses a decline. The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet line is winding down, and in 2024 the Air Force planned to buy fewer than 100 of the latest F-15EX, leaving the T-7 Red Hawk trainer and MQ-25 uncrewed refueller as the division's longer-term work.

A former US Marine Corps fighter pilot who manages a defence and aerospace fund described the outlook in earlier years as poor. Another advisory firm executive called the shift remarkable and said he could not recall a comparable case in the industry's history.

The source does not name the F/A-XX aircraft or give a timeline for development or production.