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U.S. Air Force F-22 and U.S. Navy F-18s.
Leadership of the U.S. Air Force and Navy have recently pitched to President Donald Trump their future fighter plans, as the Pentagon and the administration prepare to decide how to fund procurement of the aircraft.
Rep Rob Wittman (R-Va.) said March 18 both the service leadership briefed Trump on the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) penetrating counter air fighter and the F/A-XX programs ahead of the upcoming fiscal 2026 budget request. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin provided the briefing on March 12 at the president’s request, Aviation Week has learned.
The update comes as the Air Force has finalized its extended review of NGAD’s requirements, which found that the sixth-generation fighter is needed for a potential Indo-Pacific fight. The NGAD program has been on pause since July 2024 as the service reviews its requirements to determine if the program was the right way to go.
“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 at the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado. “So that means yes, keep on the modernization. Yes, NGAD.”
Speaking at the McAleese and Associates Conference March 18, Allvin added that the testing of the initial Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) will feed into the mix of NGAD and the uncrewed systems. While the administration will make the final say, “we’re going to be learning a little bit” as CCAs are tested this summer to determine the right high-end mix for fighters and drones, he says.
The analysis coincided with a new force design concept for the Air Force. While the design is largely still classified, the service has outlined an approach to build forces to operate in different “mission areas” ranging from highly contested, close-in to the enemy to permissive support in farther-away areas. Allvin says the Air Force needs to develop a different mix of aircraft and munitions so that high-end, expensive fighters and weapons are not depleted early on in a conflict.
Wittman, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the conference, says he also received a briefing from Air Force and Navy officials on NGAD and F/A-XX.
“I think that capability is necessary, especially because it involves a family of systems concept and we’re going to have to be able to operate in some way in that highly contested environment,” Wittman says.
For the future fighters, Wittman says the Pentagon needs to focus on moving quickly instead of building a highly capable fighter that takes “years and years into the future” to be fielded. Some on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) have called on the services to more jointly develop their future fighters as a way to speed up the process and lower costs.
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