The Navy is seeking $1.528 billion as part of its fiscal year 2024 funding request for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, declassifying part of NGAD for the first time since the FY ‘20 budget request.
The Navy last disclosed NGAD funding levels in the FY ‘20 request for $20.7 million and projected spending $256 million by FY ‘22.
Now the Navy seeks over $1.5 billion for the F/A-XX next generation fighter portion of the NGAD effort and a Navy official said this is a big increase over the last year’s classified request.
“So the number is unclassified, [but] the supporting documents which support that is. So what I would simply say is we’re investing in our next generation fighter at the value you see. What I can tell you, though, is that it is about a $600 million increase from last year’s request,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget Rear Adm. John Gumbleton told reporters on Friday ahead of the March 13 budget briefings.
Last year, Gumbleton said the funding was going up “somewhat dramatically” over the five-year Future Years Defense Program but did not disclose any specific funding levels (Defense Daily, March 28, 2022).
Also, in 2022, Navy Department acquisition officials told a House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces that the sixth-generation F/A-XX aircraft is planned to be the “quarterback” of a carrier-based manned-unmanned teaming family of systems concept for NGAD (Defense Daily, May 3, 2022).
This week Gumbleton confirmed the $1.5 billion in funding is specifically assigned to the next generation fighter rather than spread across the entire NGAD family of systems.
The Navy plans to start replacing the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets in the 2030s with F/A-XX as the former reach the end of their service lives. As quarterback, the F/A-XX may direct several unmanned tactical platforms.
In 2021, Rear Adm. Gregory Harris, then-Director of the Air Warfare Division, said while the Navy’s sixth-generation fighter will likely be a manned aircraft, the service is looking at possibly reaching up to 50 percent unmanned aircraft as part of future carrier air wings (Defense Daily, March 30, 2021).
Beyond F/A-XX directing unmanned platforms, the Navy’s 2021 Aviation Vision 2030-2035 Plan said analysis showed the newest fighter should have longer range and speed than the Super Hornet, incorporate passive and active sensor technology, and have the ability to use longer-range weapons
Last week, U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced that service’s similar NGAD program plans for 1,000 Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) to be used by 300 Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35A and the 200 of the service’s future manned Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter (Defense Daily, March 7).
The Air Force budget overview noted a $522 million request for CCA in fiscal year 2024 over Congress approving $52 million in the final FY ‘23 budget. Kendall said he could not specify the pieces of the 2023 CCA funding because it quickly moves into classified information.