Several members of the House Appropriations Committee this week voiced concerns that the Navy’s sixth generation fighter program could be awarded three years later than currently planned.
“I will not parse my words here. We need sixth generation fighters. The U.S. Navy needs sixth generation fighters. I’m concerned that any hesitancy on our part to proceed with the planned procurement of the sixth gen fighters for the Navy will leave us dangerously outmatched in a China fight. We cannot wait,” Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said in his opening statement during a Navy/Marine Corps oversight hearing May 14.
Calvert continued that the industrial base needs a clear projection to work efficiently.
“Aviation programs that rely on highly specialized supply chains and skilled labor cannot be turned on and off like a switch. If we continue sending mixed signals through delayed buys, program instability or shifting requirements, we risk hollowing out the very industrial base we need for future readiness. We must treat this sector as a strategic asset, not as an afterthought.”
His and other members’ concerns were spurred by a recent Reuters report that some members of the Trump administration are looking to delay the Navy’s F/A-XX program, its planned sixth generation fighter, by up to three years due to unspecified engineering and production capacity concerns.
Ranking member Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) explained that, according to the report, Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD) officials are looking to shift $454 million in fiscal year 20225 funds Congress allocated to F/A-XX would be shifted to other programs while the Pentagon also plans to ask Congress to not provide $500 million for F/A-XX in the pending reconciliation bill.
Secretary of the Navy John Phelan responded that all the budget issues are still being internally deliberated.
“The budget numbers are all over the place, to be perfectly honest. And we’re sitting down, having meetings daily on different topics and different things. I don’t have a great answer for you as it relates to it. A number of different programs we’re going through is being debated, just like we went through with the Virginia-class contract.”
McCollum responded to the report that, “Mr. Secretary, but when we appropriate money, $453 million in [FY 2025] just for that, that’s what that money’s for. And Congress doesn’t make it fungible for it to be used in other places. So that’s why you’re getting the question. We’ll follow up with you on that.”
In March, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) said the Air Force and Navy had briefed President Trump and Congress on the next Generation Air Dominance programs of both services, including F/A-XX for the Navy (Defense Daily, March 18).
Only days following the briefing, the Air Force awarded Boeing [BA] the contract to build that service’s sixth-generation manned fighter, dubbed the F-47 (Defense Daily, March 21).
The Navy is expected to ultimately pick between Boeing and Northrop Grumman [NOC] for the eventual F/A-XX contract, which would succeed the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft.
Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) was one of several members saying he is concerned that the the Navy has not moved forward with its next generation fighters despite the Air Force’s actions and said he is concerned about how that positions the Navy for a potential conflict with China.
“I’m concerned about the risk associated with delays and without getting too far down in the weeds, can you help me understand how we mitigate risk and when we might expect a downselect, on that platform, because if everybody understands that there’s a move out date for China on Taiwan of 2027. Those are the kinds of things that cause us to have to look at our acquisition process and wonder if we’re operating from behind.”
Womack was referring to China’s government putting 2027 as a goal for a level of modernization analysts say could mean being ready to attempt an invasion of Taiwan and DoD officials looking to counter that potential action.
Phelan said the Defense Department and Navy is still looking at the force structure for the future manned-unmanned force “and understanding what is the right balance…so we are committed and I am committed to making sure that we have the ability to fight in the future and meet next generation threats and that’s what we look to do.”
“We’ve learned a lot from Ukraine, we’ve learned a lot from some of these other conflicts in how we should fight and I think that needs to inform the posture moving forward,” he added.
Adm. James Kilby, acting Chief of Naval Operations, added that the “sixth gen fighter is key to the air wing of the future. So to me, the carrier is the most survivable airfield we have, period, and stop. The sixth gen fighter is a keystone of our air wing of the future, which includes, as the Secretary indicated, manned and unmanned aircraft.”
However, Kilby noted the F/A-XX will take time to develop and would not be fielded by 2027 regardless of a procurement delay.
“So the three-year part is a delay, if we start the program late, but it would deliver far in the future. But we’ve got to commit to that, because we’re going to have aircraft carriers. They’re going to live in this contested environment, and that’s my operational assessment, that we need an air wing of the future that does everything the Secretary just described, for the reasons he described it, to pace the threat. So in three years, we’re going to deliver the fleet we have to be as capable as it can be to counter the [People’s Republic of China], and then we need to build that future fleet moving forward.”
Womack reiterated the committee view that “we’re going up against a world class adversary, potentially, and we got to have world class equipment and for the aviation component of air wing in the future, that’s a sixth gen fighter.”
Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-Texas), vice chair of the subcommittee, argued he is a “fervent supporter” of the Air Force’s F-47 and said the Navy needs its equivalent without delay.
“Industry is ready to do this, no matter what anybody says. I’m kind of getting tired of the bureaucratic brigade delaying our mission to provide for the warfighters. We win with both the F/A-XXs and [Air Force F-47] NGAD. Not one or the other. A three-year delay is a de facto cancellation and a win for China and Xi Jinping is watching. One of the reasons we’re even having this conversation is because of a broken acquisition system and systems commands that slow us down,” Ellzey said.