Navy’s Next Generation F/A-XX Downselect Expected in August

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The builder of the Navy’s long-awaited next-generation carrier fighter will be picked in the summer, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said Monday.

Speaking to reporters, Caudle said that following several conversations with Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg, the Pentagon and the Navy, the downselect would occur in August.

“I think you’re going to see a downselect on this in August. I think that’s the month that they have committed to making the decision on the program,” he told reporters Monday at the Sea Air Space 2026 conference.

Boeing and Northrop Grumman are the two aviation contractors thought to be in the running for the F/A-XX that will eventually replace the Boeing F/A-18/E/F Super Hornet on the the Navy’s aircraft carriers in the 2030s. Boeing was selected last year to be the F-47 air superiority fighter for the Air Force while Northrop Grumman is building the B-21 Raider bomber, also for the Air Force.

Without naming a company, Caudle said one company was unable to meet the Navy’s timeline.

“One of the contractors who would make this plane for us is in a place where they really can’t deliver in the timeframe we need it. So there was a “check twice, cut once” kind of mentality here on this decision,” Caudle said.

The F/A-XX has been in a decades-long development process as the Navy has mulled how it will address the air wing of the future and keeping aircraft carriers viable as the range of potential adversary’s guided weapons continue to increase. In addition, the rise of low-cost, lethal drones has democratized long-range striking power for less sophisticated forces.

“One of the challenges we’re seeing is not only is the our peer competitors improving their capability for anti-air, air-to-air, surface-to-air, but the lower cost of entry of very capable weapons are also making more players on the field in which that level of stealth and technology is required,” Caudle said.

Keeping the carrier viable would involve both stealth and extending the range of the carrier air wing with platforms like the MQ-25A Stingray unmanned tanker as part of the air wing of the future concept the Navy has been long-developing.

“[Air wing of the future] ties to our MQ-25 for stealth refueling. It ties to our reach. It ties to the work we’re doing for making the carry or something that remains very effective into the future based on the range in which it can operate safely,” Caudle said.

In addition to the F/A-XX, the Navy has also contracted five companies to develop naval collaborative combat aircraft for the sea service.

“The CCA concept is all part of our sixth generation concept. It’s tied with the overall air wing of the future concept,” he said. “It is a program that we’re working very hard trying to do that in learning with the Air Force on what CCAs look like in the future and the way we’re going to command and control those how many, what’s the number that a pilot can reasonably control and task and AI is part of that.”