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‘Secretary-level and above’ officials ‘working’ F/A-XX fighter decision: Acting CNO
“I don’t want to get ahead of the contract decision, but I will tell you we need F/A-XX in the United States Navy just like the Air Force says,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby said.
Acting Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby delivers remarks at the 83rd Annual Seabee Ball at the City Club of Washington in Washington D.C. March 1, 2025. (U.S. Navy photo by Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Elliott Fabrizio).
SEA AIR SPACE 2025 — The much-anticipated final decision on who will build the Navy’s next-generation fighter aircraft is currently under discussion by senior-most officials, the Acting Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby said today.
“It’s a decision at the secretary-level and above, and they’re working that now,” Kilby told reporters on the first day of the Navy-centric Sea Air Space exhibition outside of Washington, DC.
“I don’t want to get ahead of the contract decision, but I will tell you we need F/A-XX in the United States Navy just like the Air Force says,” he said. “I mean we’re talking about a fight in the Pacific. We fight together as a joint force, so having that capability is very important for us.”
Kilby’s comments come weeks after President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a high-profile announcement from the Oval Office that Boeing had won the competition for the Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter, now dubbed the F-47.
But despite a report in Reuters in late March that an F/A-XX decision was imminent, no similar announcement has been made for the Navy’s next-gen fighter.
The competition for F/A-XX is believed to be between Boeing and Northrop Grumman, after Lockheed Martin dropped out, as Breaking Defense first reported.
Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly, director of the Air Warfare division for the CNO, said in a separate panel today that a “core attribute” of the plane is expected to be its range, up to “probably” 125 percent “of the range that we’re currently seeing today to give us better flexibility [and] operational reach.”
Like the Air Force’s NGAD, the F/A-XX is expected to fly with drone wingmen, known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft. Donnelly said the use of AI and other tech on the plane will “allow us to have [a] fully integrated architecture with our unmanned systems that we’re going to be fielding.”
Justin Katz and Sydney Freedburg contributed to this report.
