USAF F-47 delivery timeline points to F-22 service beyond 2030

F-47 delivery timeline and the F-22 transition

Offering an indication of the expected delivery schedule for the F-47 programme, a US congressman recently stated that the United States Air Force’s (USAF) future sixth-generation fighter would not be ready before 2030. This would mean the service must consider retaining its existing platforms for longer than anticipated. The comments were made at the McAleese Defence Programmes Conference, where Virginia Republican Rob Wittman, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, said the USAF would need to keep its F-22 fighter fleet in service as an interim solution until the transition is completed.

The USAF’s senior leadership has set a target of receiving the first F-47 aircraft by 2028 for the relevant flight testing. That would represent a three-year period from the award of the contract to Boeing, a timetable regarded by domestic analysts as exceptionally ambitious. They have drawn comparisons with the F-35 programme, which took five years to reach the same milestone. For now, the service still hopes to meet that target, according to General Dale White, who oversees the F-47 programme.

USAF control of the F-47 programme

General White also said the USAF is taking an increasingly central role in setting the roadmaps associated with the F-47 programme, covering matters such as design, development and subsequent manufacturing schedules. In his words: “We needed the government to get back into engineering. We had outsourced engineering for a long time. And being able to do that, having a government reference architecture in collaboration with industry, has allowed us to have more continuous competition, avoiding reliance on a single supplier. But at the same time, we now have a contract that allows us to develop our capabilities.”

This view was also shared by the current former USAF Chief of Staff, General David Allvin, who told congressmen last year that the Air Force was taking on greater responsibilities during these stages of the programme. As he explained at the time, this would give Washington increased control and a better understanding of the platform’s development process. That was not the case with the F-35, as Lockheed Martin retained rights over key design data.

It should also be recalled that the USAF sees the future sixth-generation F-47 fighter as a direct replacement for its most capable fighters currently in service: the aforementioned F-22s. The aircraft is therefore being developed as a combat platform able to operate in highly demanding scenarios, alongside Boeing, which was selected in March 2025 as the winner of a highly classified competition also involving Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

F-47 performance and prospective weapons

Regarding the fighter’s characteristics known so far, largely from information released by the USAF itself, the F-47 is expected to be capable of speeds above Mach 2 and to have a combat radius of more than 1,000 nautical miles (1,852 km). This is significant because its range would be almost twice that of the F-22s it is intended to replace, thanks to the new XA103 engines being developed by Pratt & Whitney.

Finally, alongside this development work, the USAF has also indicated that it is seeking to develop a new missile that could become one of the F-47’s first weapons. Although this remains an initial search for industrial partners, a document released by the USAF Life Cycle Management Center at Eglin Air Force Base stated that it would be a model similar to the SiAW, which in turn is expected to be compatible with B-21 bombers and F-35 stealth fighters.

Images used for illustrative purposes

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