Trump announces Pentagon's decision to move forward with Sixth-Generation Fighter jet F-47

US President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Trump awarded the next-generation F-47 fighter jet contract to Boeing. Photo/AFP

US President Donald Trump announced the Pentagon's decision to proceed with the development of a next-generation fighter jet, designated the F-47, during joint remarks with Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth from the Oval Office on Friday (local time), CNN reported.

Trump stated that Boeing had been awarded the contract for the newest US fighter aircraft. "At my direction, the United States Air Force is moving forward with the world's first sixth-generation fighter jet, number six, sixth generation, nothing in the world comes even close to it, and it'll be known as the F-47," Trump said, as per CNN.

He further described the F-47 as "the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built" and revealed that an experimental version of the jet had been secretly flying for almost five years. "The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built. An experimental version of the plane has secretly been flying for almost 5 years and we're confident that it massively overpowers the capabilities of any other nation," he said.

During his previous administration, the Air Force had acknowledged that it had flown a full-scale prototype of the jet. "After a rigorous and thorough competition between some of America's top aerospace companies, the Air Force is going to be awarding the contract for the next generation air dominance platform to Boeing," Trump said, as per CNN.

Until now, the program had been known as Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD). But in an apparent reference to his presidency, Trump said the aircraft would be known as the F-47. Aircraft designations are normally announced by the Air Force. "It's something the likes of which nobody has seen before," Trump said, "and this has been in the works for a long period."

The Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program is intended to produce the US military's sixth-generation fighter jet, newer and more advanced than the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, which has suffered from major cost overruns and delays.

Meanwhile, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been critical of the F-35, advocating instead for unmanned drone swarms as a cheaper and more effective alternative. On social media in November, Musk wrote, "Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35," CNN reported.

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