Congress is committing to only a fraction of the funding necessary for the Navy’s F/A-XX program in the latest version of the defense policy bill, while fully backing the development of the Air Force’s F-47 fighter.
The compromise version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act released late Sunday evening contains roughly $2.6 billion for the Air Force’s F-47 program, and just $74 million to develop the Navy’s unnamed sixth-generation fighter jet. The numbers appear to reflect a White House and Pentagon victory over lawmakers who pushed to get the long-proposed replacement for the F/A-18 Super Hornet and F/A-18 electronic-warfare jet onto the drawing board this year.
“We did make a strategic decision to go all in on F-47…due to our belief that the industrial base can only handle going fast on one program at this time, and the presidential priority to go all in on F-47 and get that program right while maintaining the option for F/A-XX in the future,” a U.S. defense official told reporters during a June budget rollout.
The F/A-XX will receive less than 1 percent of the $38 billion that the NDAA would authorize to develop, buy, and upgrade military aircraft, according to the House majority’s summary of the bill. Still, the 2026 appropriations bill has yet to emerge, the reconciliation bill might add funds, and the program might also, as it has in the past, receive funds through classified accounts.
A House Armed Services Committee spokesperson did not immediately respond to clarifications regarding the total amount of funding for the program.
In March, the Navy reportedly came close to choosing Boeing or Northrop Grumman to make the future aircraft. But no announcement was made, and the service requested only $74 million for 2026, far less than the $454 million the service received last year.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has echoed the White House’s concerns about pursuing the Navy’s future fighter, reportedly telling lawmakers in a November letter that the Pentagon “strongly supports its original fiscal 2026 request reevaluating the F/A-XX program due to industrial base concerns of two sixth-generation programs occurring simultaneously.”
Several lawmakers, including Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. have been vocal about their desire to keep the program moving.
“Pentagon dithering over the Navy’s sixth-generation fighter, the F/A-XX, has delayed its development and led to hundreds of millions in contract-extension costs,” McConnell wrote last week in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. “If the department made a decision, Mr. Trump could launch a program that ensures the aircraft carrier remains America’s premier power-projection platform for decades.”
The final funding amount for the Navy’s future fighter is still up in the air. In July, the House passed its version of the 2026 defense appropriations bill with $972 million for the F/A-XX.
“The Committee understands the Navy’s requirement for a sixth-generation fighter remains unchanged and emphatically notes that the Air Force’s F-47 program is not interchangeable with Navy’s carrier-capable program,” House appropriators wrote, adding that “both programs are necessary parts of the future joint fight and failure to pursue Navy’s F/A-XX program risks leaving the U.S. dangerously outmatched in a high-end conflict.”
Reconciliation funding passed that same month included $750 million to “accelerate the FA/XX aircraft.” The full Senate has yet to vote on its version of the appropriations bill, which includes $1.4 billion for it.
The Senate version of the authorization bill reportedly included $500 million for F/A-XX through a special access program known as “Link Plumeria,” which has been previously tied to the Navy’s next-generation fighter efforts. The compromise NDAA identified $377 million for “Link Plumeria.”
As for the F-47: lawmakers are funding it yet but still want answers to basic questions.
The compromise NDAA requests a report on the F-47 program with details about “projected costs, schedule, and funding requirements” through 2034. Lawmakers are also requesting details on the estimated force structure requirements, strategic basing considerations, construction costs, personnel training requirements, and a strategy for integrating Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units into the future fighter’s operations.
The Air Force Secretary must provide those findings by March 1, 2027. The jet is is expected to make its first flight in 2028.
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