What is the F-47? The US’s sixth-generation fighter plane

Donald Trump, 47th president, said the Boeing fighter would be capable of flying alongside a swarm of drones

President Donald Trump on Friday announced that Boeing would build the next generation of fighter plane, which will be called the F-47 in his honour.

Mr Trump, who is the 47th president, said the fighter would be capable of flying alongside a swarm of drones.

“At my direction, the United States Air Force is moving forward with the world's first sixth-generation fighter jet,” Mr Trump said. “Nothing in the world that was even close to it, and it'll be known as the F-47. The generals picked a title, and it's a beautiful number,” he said.

Speaking in the White House alongside Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and USAF Chief of Staff Gen David Allvin, Mr Trump said the F-47 would be the “most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built”.

“America's enemies will never see it coming. Hopefully we won't have to use it for that purpose, but you have to have it, and if it ever happens, they won't know what the hell hit them,” he said.

Experimental versions of the planes have secretly been flying for almost five years, he added, noting that he could not reveal the price of the contract due to security reasons. He said the government had ordered “a lot” of the new aircraft.

The Next Generation Air Dominance programme will replace Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor with a crewed aircraft built to enter combat alongside drones. The plane's design remains a closely held secret, but will likely include stealth, advanced sensors, and cutting-edge engines that can maintain supersonic flight without afterburners.

“Compared to the F-22, the F-47 will cost less and be more adaptable to future threats – and we will have more of the F-47s in our inventory,” Gen Allvin said.

For Boeing, the win marks a reversal of fortune for a company that has struggled on both the commercial and defence sides of its business. Boeing stock was up by more than 4 per cent on the news, while aerospace rival Lockheed Martin was nosedived more than 6 per cent.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2018 that the new airframe could cost up to $300 million apiece – significantly more than various other aircraft currently in the US inventory.

A rendering of the new F-47 fighter jet in the Oval Office. Bloomberg

Mr Hegseth said it was “a big day for our warfighters. This is a big day for our country, a big day for the world.”

The most sophisticated fighter the US Air Force currently has is the F-35 stealth jet, made by Lockheed Martin, which with a lifetime cost projected to exceed $2 trillion is the most expensive plane yet built.

The announcement came after Mr Trump's billionaire adviser Elon Musk held a lengthy meeting with Mr Hegseth at the Pentagon.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Mr Musk, who has the job of making sweeping cuts to the federal spending, would be briefed on secret plans for possible war with China. Mr Musk and Mr Trump both denied the report and said the Tesla boss's visit to the Pentagon was related to his work with Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency organisation.

“We don't want to have a potential war with China, but I can tell you, if we did, we're very well equipped to handle it,” Mr Trump said, adding that Mr Musk would oppose war with China because he has businesses there.