The Navy recently revealed that its secretive next-generation fighter program has transitioned to the design maturation phase and disclosed the main competitors hoping to build the aircraft.
The Navy’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program aims to ultimately replace the Boeing [BA] F/A-18E/F Super Hornet with a new jet dubbed F/A-XX.
Aviation Week first reported that Cmdr. Mark Cochran, F/A-XX requirements officer at the Navy’s Air Warfare Division N98, said at the Tailhook Symposium on Aug. 26 that the program moved on from the concept refinement to design maturation phase with Boeing [BA], Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] vying for the new airframe.
General Electric’s GE Aerospace [GE] and RTX’s Pratt & Whitney [RTX] are also competing for the NGAD engine.
A Navy spokesperson confirmed to Defense Daily that NGAD has transitioned phases and these five companies are the competitors.
“As presented at Tailhook, F/A-XX has recently completed the Concept Refinement Phase and has entered Design Maturation. Navy confirms that Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, GE Aerospace, and Pratt & Whitney are industry participants in the F/A-XX Program,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson noted that the Navy’s NGAD is separate from the Air Force’s version and that “Navy has identified operational reach, capacity, long range kill chains, autonomy, and next generation survivability as key enablers in the Air Wing of the Future and supporting Family of Systems.”
The service has kept this program particularly close to the vest, especially for the last three years.
The Navy’s FY ‘24 budget request disclosed the service is seeking $1.53 billion for NGAD, with the vast majority focused on the F/A-XX next generation fighter itself.
When the budget was released, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget Rear Adm. John Gumbleton told reporters when that this request is a $600 million increase from last year’s classified request (Defense Daily, March 14).
A year earlier in 2022, Gumbleton said the Navy planned to increase NGAD funding “somewhat dramatically” over the following five years. That was the third year in a row the service did not disclose specific budget levels for NGAD (Defense Daily, March 28, 2022).
The Navy plans to start replacing the Super Hornets with the sixth-generation F/A-XX sometime in the 2030s and it will act as a kind of quarterback, directing several unmanned platforms.
In 2021, then-Director of the Air Warfare Division Rear Adm. Gregory Harris said the Navy’s sixth-generation fighter would most likely stay manned, but the service is looking to ultimately make the future carrier air wings potentially consist of up to 50 percent unmanned aircraft (Defense Daily, March 30, 2021).
While Boeing did not confirm if it was a competitor itself, the company said it is committed to helping the Navy’s future carrier air wing.
“Boeing fighters are the backbone of today’s carrier air wing, and we’re using what we’ve learned to inform the multi-billion dollar strategic investment we’re making in advanced open mission systems and brand new, all-digital factories of the future. We are fully committed to helping the U.S. Navy achieve its future vision,” Steve Nordlund, vice president and general manager of Boeing Air Dominance, said in a statement to Defense Daily.
The other competitors did not provide a statement by publication time.
Last month, Kathy Warden, Northrop Grumman chairwoman, president and CEO, said during an earnings call that the company had “quietly notified” the Air Force they were pulling out of bidding on the Air Force’s version of NGAD. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are the remaining competitors for the Air Force’s NGAD program (Defense Daily, July 27).
At the time, Warden declined to say if the company was bidding on the Navy’s version of NGAD.
The unmanned component of the Air Forces NGAD program is called the Collaborative Combat Aircraft. Warden sad the company was “looking at it closely,” despite pulling out of the manned component.