Just weeks into his second term, US President Donald Trump set the ball rolling on the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program (now F-47) and vowed unmatched air dominance against rivals. However, it appears China was not very impressed by Trump’s statements.
Trump awarded the contract for the crewed sixth-generation fighter, which is at the heart of the NGAD program, to Boeing on March 20, 2025.
Notably, the aircraft was named “F-47” as a tribute to the legendary World War II-era piston-engine P-47 Thunderbolt fighter, and was also purportedly linked to the founding year of the US Air Force (USAF)—1947. However, observers and netizens speculated that the designation was likely linked to Trump’s status as the 47th President of the United States.
However, in a 180-degree turn, Trump signalled in a speech at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos in Switzerland that he could change the designation of the future aircraft if he did not like it.
“They say it’s [the F-47] the most devastating plane, fighter jet ever,” Trump said. “They called it 47. If I don’t like it, I’m going to take the 47 off it.”
There is no information on what prompted the sudden change of heart, since Trump earlier seemed aligned with the designation.
“Nothing in the world comes even close to it, and it’ll be known as the F-47. The generals picked a title, and it’s a beautiful number,” the President had stated after unveiling the aircraft in March last year.
While Trump is regularly credited with rescuing the NGAD despite budgetary constraints and longstanding skepticism over the feasibility of building a sixth-generation crewed fighter jet, some experts state that the President probably does not want to be permanently associated with the F-47, particularly if the program encountered significant difficulties or did not turn out as it has been envisioned.
The F-47 Fighter Jet
The US Air Force (USAF) states that the F-47 will change air combat forever with next-generation air superiority, which may be indispensable in future combat with China in the Indo-Pacific.
Though most information remains classified, the F-47 is expected to have a combat radius of over 1000 nautical miles or more than 1,800 kilometres.
A longer combat radius will likely allow the F-47 to loiter longer in contested areas, providing persistent air superiority, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and crucial strike capabilities in the event of a clash in Indo-Pacific.
Moreover, it signifies a major upgrade over the fifth-generation fighters in the USAF’s inventory. The F-22 Raptor has a combat range of 590 nautical miles or about 1,100 kilometres, whereas the F-35 Lightning II has a combat range of 670 nautical miles or over 1,200 kilometres.
The F-47 is expected to operate with AI-powered drone wingmen (CCAs), which will further extend its effective range. Two different CCA prototypes, the General Atomics YFQ-42A and Anduril’s YFQ-44A, are currently under development.
The F-47 will have a top speed of more than Mach 2, which is the same as the F-22 Raptor and more than the Mach 1.6 speed of the F-35.
Earlier, while awarding the contract, Donald Trump had said, “There’s never been anything even close to it, from speed to manoeuvrability, to what it can have, to payload.”
The F-47 is expected to have ‘stealth++’—an advancement from the Raptor’s ‘stealth+’ and F-35’s ‘stealth.’, as disclosed by an infographic posted by the USAF top boss in May 2025.
This aligns with the existing information on the F-47, which is envisioned to be a very low-observable aircraft. Multiple reports published in the EurAsian Times in the past have discussed the aircraft’s broad-spectrum stealth and potential radar countermeasures.
Meanwhile, China has been flying two different prototypes of its sixth-generation fighter jets, named J-36 and J-50, since December 2024.
Not much is known about the J-36 fighters except that they feature broad-spectrum stealth just like the F-47. Additionally, the tailless delta platforms of the new Chinese fighters (including the J-50) give them the highest possible multispectral radar stealth.
The US Air Force has said it plans to buy at least 185 F-47s, and US President Donald Trump has emphasized that it would put the US far ahead of other countries.
“We have the best equipment. F-47… they say it’s the most devastating plane fighter jet ever,” he stated. However, the Chinese certainly beg to differ.
China Not Impressed By F-47?
Chinese state media, including Global Times and CCTV, have extensively covered the F-47. However, the commentary has been largely based on perceived flaws associated with the aircraft and the speed at which it has progressed.
For instance, right after the contract for the F-47 was awarded, a Global Times report citing experts claimed that although the aircraft was a true sixth-generation fighter, it may have limited stealth capability, is visually small, and is being developed by an unreliable contractor, Boeing.
Examining the artist rendering of the aircraft revealed by the USAF, Zhang Xuefeng, a Chinese military affairs expert, asserted that F-47’s appearance conforms with the general development pattern of the sixth-generation fighter jet concept. He highlighted that the aircraft lacks vertical tails to increase stealth in all directions, that the fuselage is a lifting body, and that its nose is flat—all crucial features of a sixth-gen fighter.
Another expert stated that the F-47’s stealth will be somewhat compromised by the two canards visible in front of its main wings.
Zhang reiterated that eliminating vertical tails and adopting a supersonic flying-wing structure to enhance stealth is a significant trend for sixth-generation fighter planes. He added that novel systems, including movable wingtips, are required in place of vertical tails to control the aircraft. However, the F-47 chose to employ canards, a rather outdated technique commonly seen in older jets.
The Chinese experts say that, in contrast, the two Chinese sixth-generation fighters, the J-36 and the J-50, appear to have removed vertical tails and also do not have canards.
Separately, Chinese analysts have also pointed to the F-47’s relatively smaller size.
The chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge magazine, Wang Ya’nan, stated that the F-47’s total size is probably not much bigger than the F-22 when compared to the size of the canopy and the front landing gear.
He contrasted this with the Chinese sixth-generation J-36 prototype, saying it is a large, multipurpose aerial platform capable of performing campaign-scale tasks, whereas the F-47 is still a tactical aircraft.
Chinese analysts have also dismissed the USAF’s claims that the sixth-generation aircraft have been in testing for nearly 5 years, arguing that there is no evidence to support them.
“Even the pictures depicting the F-47 are artists’ renderings rather than photos,” the Global Times report stated.
Additionally, the Chinese have emphasized that Boeing hasn’t won a significant fighter jet program in decades, and its programs, such as the KC-46 tanker and the 737 MAX, have also experienced several problems.
“Having a company like this to lead a sixth-generation program is actually very risky,” Wang stated.
The Chinese sixth-generation fighters have been pitted against the American F-47, as evidenced by a Chinese state broadcaster airing grainy, low-quality footage and photos purporting to show a test flight of the J-36, just two days after the contract for the F-47 was awarded. At the time, analysts stated that the timing of the two events points to a race for aerial superiority.
Without directly referring to the US progress in developing and producing the F-47, the senior engineer Yang Shuifeng of the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute stated in December 2025 that they have developed a groundbreaking method and experience for rapidly and reliably producing sixth-generation fighters, surpassing the United States by years.
An article in the South China Morning Post that same month emphasized that China had surpassed the US in developing next-generation fighters by leveraging experience from earlier stealth programs, such as the J-20, and implementing effective management techniques to accelerate capability development.
Chinese military experts, frequently cited in state media and think tanks, respect the F-47’s innovations such as AI, drone integration, and extended range, but believe Beijing has a comfortable lead in testing its own next-gen fighters, claiming that the US was “years behind.”
Counter Narrative
While Chinese sources portray the F-47 as a reactive, inferior program lagging behind their J-36 and J-50, Western analysts argue that Washington has maintained a lead in sixth-generation technology through secretive development since 2014, with demonstrators flying as early as 2020.
They argue that the F-47’s deliberate secrecy protects advanced features such as adaptive-cycle engines, metamaterial stealth, and AI-driven systems, in contrast to China’s public displays.
The only remaining issue is that the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program, which is developing cutting-edge jet engines that may eventually power the F-47, has been delayed, as previously acknowledged by the USAF.
There is currently no update on which engine will finally power the F-47.
In rebuttal to the argument against the F-47’s design, Western experts note that canards can enhance maneuverability and lift without stealth penalties when integrated with advanced materials and shaping. They reckoned that the US designs had likely optimized this and speculated that the released images were meant to mislead adversaries.
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
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