THE SET-UP: A flying ATM machine. That’s how I’ve often referred to Lockheed Martin’s F-35. Plagued by a comically long list of problems throughout its still-ongoing production run, it is the most expensive weapons system in human history. That’s including all the cost overruns, the perpetual redesigns and retrofits (my favorite being the need for a new helmet to prevent the plane from inadvertently breaking the pilot’s neck) and the costly maintenance required to keep Lockheed’s incredibly fussy machine flying. And that’s been a real challenge … because it has a notoriously poor record of readiness. It spends a lot of time in the shop.
But US allies keep on buying it because that’s how US empire works. The customer is always right, right? That’s why the reliable customers in Riyadh have a knack for getting away with murder. Being a customer in the supermarket of US Military Hardware has its privileges. It’s kinda like a kinetic Costco card.
It’s also how empire maintains support at home. The F-35 persists in no small part because it’s an incredibly effective jobs program. Otherwise dovish Bernie Sanders supported the plane. Why? Because the plane found a long-term home at the Air National Guard Base at the Burlington International Airport. That brings money and jobs and political support. Look at where weapons are made. Many a Senator and Representative is serving constituencies tied to weapons procurement. And the jobs generated by major systems like the F-35 are often spread around various states and districts for that reason. It’s also one of the reasons military spending is so adamantine … it’s a paycheck.
I suspect that was a big part of why Boeing’s won the competition to build the Next Generation of Flying ATM Machine. The F-47 is a de facto jobs program Boeing desperately needs to keep its production lines afloat. So, it’s not just an ATM Machine, the F-47 is an incredibly expensive life preserver. - jp
TITLE: F-47 Revealed: Inside the Air Force’s Next-Gen Fighter and Boeing’s Big Win
https://news.clearancejobs.com/2025/03/25/f-47-revealed-inside-the-air-forces-next-gen-fighter-and-boeings-big-win/
EXCERPTS: On Friday, President Donald Trump announced that aerospace giant Boeing was awarded a contract for the F-47, which will be the future air superiority fighter for the United States Air Force. It came just months after comments by some Air Force officials put into question the Pentagon’s commitment to the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, the systems of the systems that included a sixth-generation manned fighter to replace the aging fleet of Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors.
“With the F-47, we are not just building another fighter – we are shaping the future of warfare and putting our enemies on notice. This platform will be the most advanced, lethal, and adaptable fighter ever developed – designed to outpace, outmaneuver, and outmatch any adversary that dares to challenge our brave Airmen,” explained Chief of Staff of the Air Force General David Allvin.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency further noted the role that X-planes – the series of experimental aircraft and rockets that have been used to test and evaluate new technologies and aerodynamic concepts – were employed in the development of the NGAD’s manned aircraft.
“Under research and development contracts with DARPA, Boeing and Lockheed Martin designed two X-planes as risk reduction for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) Platform. These aircraft first flew in 2019 and 2022, logging several hundred hours each,” DARPA explained.
Its “Air Dominance Initiative study” was launched in 2014, and resulted in the agency’s Aerospace Innovation Initiative.
“It is often only in future decades when DARPA’s disruptive impact can be unveiled – today, we’re proud to be able to share the 10-year DARPA research arc that has culminated in the F-47 program, defining the next era of American air dominance,” said DARPA Acting Director Rob McHenry.
There had been much hype in December and then again last week after China’s believed sixth-generation fighter – dubbed the J-36 by military analysts although its actual designation isn’t known – was spotted flying over Chengdu Aircraft Corporation’s (CAC’s) headquarters in Chengdu, Sichuan province. That had led to speculation that Beijing had leapfrogged Washington with China making a great leap forward towards air dominance.
However, that doesn’t seem to be the case, and it is believed that the first test flight of the F-47 and competing prototypes may have flown years ago.
“While our X-planes were flying in the shadows, we were cementing our air dominance – accelerating the technology, refining our operational concepts, and proving that we can field this capability faster than ever before. Because of this, the F-47 will fly during President Trump’s administration,” Allvin added.
Allvin said the F-47 would be more effective than the F-22 – a point that is critical to note as the high cost of the Raptor program during George W. Bush’s administration led to the program being significantly scaled back. Moreover, it will be adaptable to future threats, while offering “significantly longer range, more advanced stealth, be more sustainable, supportable, and have higher availability than our fifth-generation fighters. This platform is designed with a “built to adapt” mindset and will take significantly less manpower and infrastructure to deploy.”
After Northrop Grumman announced that it was withdrawing from the program last year, the NGAD program came down to either Boeing or Lockheed Martin, with the latter producing the F-35 Lightning II in three variations for the U.S. military – including a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) for the Air Force, a short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) version for the U.S. Marine Corps, and a carrier-capable model for the U.S. Navy and USMC.
However, Boeing – which produces the F-15EX Eagle II for the Air Force and the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet for the U.S. Navy – came out on top. Boeing is now producing the final block of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets for the Navy, with deliveries expected to be concluded by the end of 2027. Thanks to the F-47, the aerospace company can expect its production facilities to remain at full capacity for years, possibly decades, to come.
TITLE: The F-47 Sixth-Generation Warplane Is a Colossal Waste of Money
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/the-f-47-sixth-generation-warplane-is-a-colossal-waste-of-money
EXCERPTS: The Trump administration has proudly announced the F-47, America’s sixth-generation warplane that is slated to replace the F-22A Raptor, America’s vaunted fifth-generation air superiority warplane.
It was announced with great fanfare by the forty-seventh president (who likely chose the “F-47” name as well), who hailed it as the “most powerful” warplane ever built by any country to date. Indeed, on paper, it is unlikely to be surpassed by any other warplane.
Sadly, paper is probably the only place that this plane will continue to exist in any meaningful way. That’s because the cost of each warplane in the F-47 family will be a staggering $300 million—three times higher than the cost of Lockheed Martin’s already-unaffordable F-35 Lightning II fifth-generation multirole fighter.
Incidentally, the F-35 has consistently run over its original budget, has struggled with delays, and has yet to truly prove itself worth the high costs and time commitments given to the Lockheed program. If Boeing’s F-47 encounters similar problems, its prohibitive cost could run even higher.
The Trump administration expects America’s broken defense industry to suddenly turn on a dime and produce an aircraft that is even more complex than the F-35 or the F-22, on time and at cost? Adding to the ludicrousness, the Trump administration has awarded the contract to Boeing, which has struggled for the last several years to meet its existing contractual obligations with the United States military in an assortment of programs—most notably including the new Air Force One. The selection of Boeing over Lockheed Martin is especially bizarre, considering that all of Boeing’s major product lines have struggled immensely this last decade with poor quality, mismanagement, and cost overruns.
From the disastrous 737-Max rollout to the failed Starliner program that left astronauts who traveled aboard the Boeing Starliner last year stranded for nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Boeing’s best days appear to be behind it. Why would Uncle Sam entrust this firm with a plane that the Air Force is openly referring to as their “crown jewel?
Given the cost of the system, the fact that Boeing has failed to deliver on many of its promises over the years—even evoking the ire of President Trump, notably over the delays with new Boeing 747-800s for the Air Force One replacement—it seems that, possibly, the president is giving this lucrative contract to help bail out the iconic American aerospace firm. This wouldn’t be the first time that the government has done this: by most accounts, the YF-23 built by Boeing in the late 1980s was superior to Lockheed Martin’s YF-22, but the Air Force went with the YF-22, at least in part because the Pentagon feared that Lockheed would shutter its airframe production line if it didn’t get that contract. That contract was a lifeline thrown to Lockheed, and Trump seems to be doing the same thing today with Boeing and the F-47.
Not only is Boeing going to struggle making this system, but the overall defense industrial base will be unable to produce these complex and expensive planes in any meaningful time. At a time when President Trump has made a priority of wrangling the out-of-control federal budget—with the aid of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) run by billionaire and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk—the F-47 seems to be doing the opposite: feeding an unaccountable, elephantine, and needlessly expensive defense bureaucracy.
TITLE: ‘Just another F-35 fiasco?’: China, Russia, Iran mock Trump’s unveiling of F-47 stealth jet
https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-847384
EXCERPTS: The unveiling of the Boeing F-47 by former US President Donald Trump this week was met not with awe across the globe, but with widespread skepticism, criticism and ridicule—particularly from China, Russia, Iran, and Arabic-speaking countries, where analysts and commentators questioned its cost, capabilities, and the political motives behind the announcement.
On Chinese social media platforms, users mocked the F-47’s design, which features canard forewings—a configuration previously derided by Western analysts when used in China’s own J-20 stealth fighter.
“The Americans mocked Europe’s delta wings and the J-20’s canard-delta design for years,” one widely shared post read. “Now their own super-fighter uses it – a complete reversal.” Another sarcastic remark that went viral: “Cool – just don’t give us another F-35 fiasco,” referring to the notoriously expensive and troubled F-35 program.
China’s state-run media outlet, Global Times, ran the tongue-in-cheek headline: “American 6th-gen fighter – finally not just a PPT?”, mocking the US military’s long history of unveiling high-tech concepts with minimal operational follow-through. The piece pointed out that the Pentagon had paused the program in 2024 over cost concerns and only revived it following Trump’s return to power.
Russian media was equally dismissive. Moskovsky Komsomolets, a major Moscow newspaper, headlined its article: “Trump baffled aviation experts with claims about a new super-fighter.” Quoting aviation analyst Denis Fedutinov, the paper noted, “There are no actual specifics yet,” and compared the announcement to Trump’s infamous 2020 pledge to build a “super-duper missile,” which failed to materialize.
In Iran, state-affiliated media like Fars News and Euronews Persian reported Trump’s claim that the F-47 would “surprise America’s enemies,” but did not appear especially alarmed.
A Telegram user in Iran joked: “F-47 or not, the price of bread is unchanged,” reflecting public disinterest and domestic frustration amid economic hardship. Iranian military forums, however, did note the jet’s potential to command drone swarms and penetrate regional air defenses, prompting quiet concern about future air superiority in the Gulf.
In Arabic-speaking countries, particularly in the Gulf, reactions were mixed but laced with sarcasm. Trump’s declaration that “nothing in the world can rival it” was widely mocked. One Arabic-language post read, “Have you met the marketing department of Lockheed Martin?” Another user joked: “New plane, new claims… the usual American show. Impressive, but we’ve seen this show before.”
Arab defense analysts on outlets like Sky News Arabia and Alhurra questioned the strategic timing of the announcement, suggesting it was aimed more at Beijing and Moscow than the Middle East.