The U.S. Navy has selected Boeing to develop its next-generation carrier-based fighter, awarding the aerospace giant a contract valued at more than $20 billion for the full-scale development of the F/A-XX.
The Pentagon announced the decision Tuesday, September 29, marking a major step forward for a program intended to reshape the Navy's carrier air wing beginning in the 2030s. The contract includes multiple test aircraft for ground testing, airworthiness evaluations, systems integration and weapons testing.
The F/A-XX is being developed as a sixth-generation aircraft designed to operate in increasingly contested airspace. The Navy expects it eventually to replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler while operating alongside the F-35C.
The aircraft is expected to emphasize greater range, survivability and advanced mission capabilities. Public descriptions of the program have highlighted stealth, advanced sensors and open mission systems, although many details remain classified as development progresses.
The program is part of a broader effort to modernize U.S. naval aviation for future operations against sophisticated air-defense and electronic-warfare networks.
Michael P. Duffey, under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, described the F/A-XX as a central element of the Pentagon's future airpower plans.
“The F/A-XX is a critical pillar in our commitment to maintaining peace through strength,” Duffey said. He added that the aircraft is intended to operate in contested airspace and extend the Navy's operational reach.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao called the aircraft a major advance for naval aviation.
“The Sixth-Generation fighter is a generational leap in air superiority,” Cao said, describing the program as a way to provide Navy pilots with new capabilities for future combat operations.
The selection also gives Boeing responsibility for both of the Pentagon's major sixth-generation fighter programs.
In March 2025, the company was selected to develop the Air Force's F-47, the service's next-generation fighter. With the F/A-XX award, Boeing will now simultaneously develop sixth-generation aircraft for both the Air Force and Navy.
Boeing's defense division said it had anticipated the possibility of developing both aircraft programs simultaneously and had invested accordingly.
“Delivering two advanced fighters in parallel was always our plan, and we invested accordingly,” Steve Parker, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, said.
The Navy's decision came after a lengthy competition involving Boeing and Northrop Grumman. The F/A-XX program had faced delays and questions about the defense industry's ability to develop multiple sixth-generation aircraft programs at the same time.
The contract now moves the F/A-XX into full-scale development, but the aircraft is still years away from becoming an operational component of the carrier fleet.
For the Navy, the program represents a long-term transition away from the current Super Hornet and Growler fleet toward a new generation of carrier-based combat aviation.
For Boeing, it represents a second major sixth-generation fighter win and a substantial expansion of its role in the future of American military aviation.
As development proceeds through the 2030s, the F/A-XX will become one of the Navy's most closely watched modernization programs, particularly as the service prepares its carrier air wings for an era in which range, survivability, networking and advanced sensing are increasingly important to combat operations.
