PARIS—Boeing’s defense chief rejected the Navy secretary’s contention that U.S. defense companies can’t handle building two sixth-generation fighter jets at once.
“Absolutely we can do it, and so can the industrial base, and so can the engine manufacturers. So I don’t see that as being an issue,” Boeing defense and space CEO Steve Parker told reporters Monday at the Paris Air Show.
The Navy’s F/A-XX program is in limbo after the service cut funding for the program in initial 2026 budget documents, a move Navy Secretary John Phelan said was driven by industry’s tardiness on other programs.
But Boeing, which won the competition to build the F-47 sixth-generation fighter jet for the Air Force in March, said the company would be fine if it also won F/A-XX.
The company is spending almost $5 billion to build up its air-dominance facilities, with the intent to execute both programs, Parker said.
“From day one, a capital investment was for both programs. We’ve done the same with our technology. We’ve done the same with our staffing. I can’t get too many staffing numbers, but we have a very large number of folks working on both programs.”
The decision lies with the government, but Parker said Navy leaders have made it clear that the service still needs a sixth-gen fighter jet. Congress also is fighting to keep the program alive and has added money to the reconciliation bill.
While Boeing hopes that F/A-XX will be saved, the company is pushing ahead with work on the F-47—emphasizing that no other aircraft will come close to it, including the F-35.
After Boeing beat Lockheed Martin for the contract to build the F-47, Lockheed officials started pitching a “supercharged” version of the F-35 that they said could deliver 80 percent of sixth-gen capability at half the cost.
Parker said Boeing isn’t worried about that effort competing with the F-47.
“I get it when other companies have shareholders to answer to when they’ve been knocked out of both sixth-gen fighter programs. But at the end of the day, I think the U.S. Air Force’s selection of the F-47…tells you all you need to. Only a sixth-generation aircraft, specifically developed and designed to meet the requirements of today and of the future—that’s the only sensible solution,” Parker said.
Air Force One update
Boeing is also “very close” to finalizing the design of two new VC-25 presidential jets, Parker said, a program that is years behind schedule.
Air Force officials have said the delivery date could be pushed up to 2027 from the projected 2029 if some of the program’s stringent requirements are removed.
Parker said the company’s work with Elon Musk—defense contractor and erstwhile advisor to President Trump—has been “helpful” in moving the project forward.
“I would tell you that over the last four or five months, we’ve made more progress than we’ve made in the last four years. So the administration has been very, very helpful. Clearly, Elon was part of that, but the administration is much more than Elon, and that continues as we go forward,” he said.
Parker also said some of the initial requirements on the program were “physically impossible to do.”
Those requirements were set in a $3.9 billion fixed-price contract negotiated between Boeing’s then-CEO and first-term President Trump. The company has lost more than $2.4 billion on the deal so far.
Trump has directed the Pentagon to modify a luxury 747 donated by the Qatari royal family for use as an interim Air Force One, a plan that has raised ethical and security concerns. It also remains unclear how the Pentagon will pay for the modifications, and how quickly the Air Force could acquire a third set of highly specialized systems.
Parker maintained said the Qatari-jet upgrades would not affect his company’s Air Force One program.
“I can’t get into any discussion on Aircraft Three, around configuration or whatever else. All I can talk about is VC-25B and I don’t see any issue whatsoever, any impact of VC-25B from what the U.S. government might do there,” Parker said.
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