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U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin speaks March 3 at an Air and Space Forces Association Conference.
AURORA, Colorado—Top U.S. Air Force officials are increasing their public push for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter months after the program was placed on pause, arguing that the future fighter is necessary for potential future conflicts.
The comments come as a decision on how to proceed with the NGAD penetrating counter air fighter is on hold until new Air Force leadership is confirmed and decides whether to proceed.
Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in July 2024 that he paused NGAD shortly before an expected award to either Boeing or Lockheed Martin to build the sixth-generation fighter. The Air Force convened a panel of experts to review the analysis for the fighter, and Kendall said before leaving office in January that the decision would be made by officials in the new administration of President Donald Trump.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, during a keynote address at the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air Warfare Symposium here, argued the service needs more resources to become more effective and increase its size. As part of that, there needs to be an increased focus on modernization.
“If we’re in this dangerous and dynamic time, I want to give the president as many options as we possibly can,” Allvin said March 3. “So that means yes, keep on the modernization. Yes, NGAD.”
Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel, the service’s director of Force Design, Integration and Wargaming on the Air Staff, said in a separate discussion on March 4 that the analysis showed NGAD is needed. The study looked at basic questions about the need for air superiority in the future.
“What we found is not only in the past, not in the present, but in the future, air superiority matters,” he says. “What this study told us is: We tried a whole bunch of different options and there’s no more viable option than NGAD to achieve air superiority in this highly contested environment.”
Kunkel did not specify if the Air Force should proceed with NGAD under its original requirements or if it would need to be changed. Allvin and Kendall had raised cost concerns about the platform, which is projected to cost about $300 million each.
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