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from https://www.staradvertiser.com/2025/03/21/breaking-news/boeing-lands-20b-fighter-jet-contract-as-trump-unveils-f-47/

Boeing lands $20B fighter jet contract as Trump unveils F-47
By Mike Stone / Reuters

March 21, 2025 • Last updated 9 a.m.

BusinessPolitics

REUTERS/BENOIT TESSIER/FILE PHOTO
A Boeing logo is seen at the 54th International Paris Airshow at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France, in
June 2023. President Donald Trump awarded Boeing today the contract to
build the U.S. Air Force’s most sophisticated fighter jet yet, dubbed
the F-47, handing the company a much-needed win.
1/2
REUTERS/BENOIT TESSIER/FILE PHOTO

A Boeing logo is seen at the 54th International Paris Airshow at Le
Bourget Airport near Paris, France, in June 2023. President Donald Trump awarded Boeing today the contract to build the U.S. Air Force’s most sophisticated fighter jet yet, dubbed the F-47, handing the company a much-needed win.

REUTERS/BENOIT TESSIER/FILE PHOTO
A Boeing logo is seen at the 54th International Paris Airshow at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France, in
June 2023. President Donald Trump awarded Boeing today the contract to
build the U.S. Air Force’s most sophisticated fighter jet yet, dubbed
the F-47, handing the company a much-needed win.
REUTERS/CARLOS BARRIA
President Donald Trump delivers
remarks, as an image of an F-47 sixth-generation fighter jet is
displayed, in the Oval Office at the White House, in Washington, D.C.,
today.
WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump awarded Boeing today the contract
to build the U.S. Air Force’s most sophisticated fighter jet yet, dubbed
the F-47, handing the company a much-needed win.

The Next Generation Air Dominance program will replace Lockheed Martin’s
F-22 Raptor with a crewed aircraft built to enter combat alongside drones.

Trump, the 47th president, announced the new jet’s name, the F-47.


“We’ve given an order for a lot. We can’t tell you the price,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“Our allies are calling constantly,” Trump added, saying foreign sales could be an option. “They want to buy them also.”

For Boeing, the win marks a reversal of fortune for a company that has struggled on both the commercial and defense sides of its business. It
is a major boost for its St. Louis, Missouri, fighter jet production
business.

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The engineering and manufacturing development contract is worth more
than $20 billion. Boeing’s win means it will make the jet fighter and
receive orders worth hundreds of billions of dollars over the contract’s multi-decade lifetime.

Shares of Boeing rose nearly 5% after the U.S. company beat out Lockheed
Martin for the deal. Lockheed’s shares fell nearly 7%.

Reuters reported Boeing’s victory before the official announcement.

The plane’s design remains a closely held secret, but would likely
include stealth, advanced sensors, and cutting-edge engines.

“Compared to the F-22, the F-47 will cost less and be more adaptable to future threats – and we will have more of the F-47s in our inventory,”
said Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General David Allvin.

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NGAD was conceived as a “family of systems” centered around a sixth-generation fighter to counter adversaries such as China and Russia.

Allvin added the F-47 will have significantly longer range, more
advanced stealth, and will be more sustainable and more easily supported
than the F-22.

MAJOR WIN

Boeing’s commercial operations have struggled as it attempts to get its best-selling 737 MAX jet production back up to full speed, while its
defense operation has been weighed down by underperforming contracts for mid-air refueling tankers, drones and training jets.

“The win is a major boost for the company, which has struggled with cost overruns, schedule delays and execution on other DoD programs,” said
Roman Schweizer, an analyst at TD Cowen.

Cost overruns at the KC-46 mid-air refueling tanker program have
surpassed $7 billion in recent years, while another fixed-price contract
to upgrade two Air Force One planes has created a $2 billion loss for
the top-5 U.S. defense contractor.

Boeing has faced ongoing scrutiny since a series of crises including a
mid-air emergency in January 2024 involving a new Alaska Airlines 737
MAX 9 missing four key bolts. In January, Boeing reported an
$11.8-billion annual loss – its largest since 2020 – due to problems at
its major units, along with fallout from a strike that shuttered
production of most of its jets.

Boeing has ceded ground to rival Airbus in the delivery race and entered
the crosshairs of regulators and customers following missteps. The
Federal Aviation Administration in early 2024 imposed a monthly
production cap.

“A program of this size and complexity requires careful oversight to
make sure it doesn’t fall behind or have cost overruns,” Democratic
Senator Mark Kelly, a former U.S. Navy combat pilot, said in a statement.

Billionaire and presidential adviser Elon Musk has voiced skepticism
about the effectiveness of crewed high-end fighters, saying cheaper
drones were a better option.

Lockheed, which was recently eliminated from the competition to build
the Navy’s next-generation carrier-based stealth fighter, faces an
uncertain future in the high-end fighter market after the loss.

“While disappointed with this outcome, we are confident we delivered a competitive solution,” Lockheed said in a statement. “We will await
further discussions with the U.S. Air Force.”

While Lockheed could still protest the government’s award to Boeing, the
fact Trump announced the deal in a high-profile press conference could
reduce the possibility of a public airing of arguments against the
agreement from the Bethesda, Maryland-based defense firm.

Additional reporting by David Shepardson.

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