The US Department of Defense is proposing to prioritize the development of new-generation fighter jets, when considering reallocating the budget from the Navy's F/A-XX program to the F-47 stealth fighter development project for the Air Force.
As planned, the Pentagon has proposed the Congress transferring $500 million from the F/A-XX acceleration budget to support the F-47. However, this proposal is controversial. Some officials opposed cutting the budget for F/A-XX and proposed increasing the allocation to 750 million USD to speed up the program's progress.
F/A-XX is the next-generation US Navy fighter development program, starting in 2008, in order to replace F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler models. The goal of the program is to create a modern stealth aircraft that can operate in the harsh combat environment, taking on many roles such as attacks, spy, electronic warfare and air refueling. It is expected that the F/A-XX will operate from the aircraft carrier, in collaboration with the F-35C fighter to deal with increasingly sophisticated threats.
However, the US Department of Defense expressed concern that the simultaneous development of two 6th generation fighter jets could overload the defense industry. Therefore, the Pentagon proposed postponing the F/A-XX program to focus resources on the F-47 - a project that Boeing has been contracting since March. Currently, Boeing is focusing all its efforts on developing this new fighter model.
Defense officials say the suspension of the F/A-XX will create conditions for related technology to reach higher completion, while helping to avoid congestion in the supply and production chain.
This reorientation marks an important shift in the US Air Force modernization strategy, as the global security environment is increasingly complex and military technology competition is becoming more fierce than ever.
