U.S. Navy’s Urgently Needed Sixth Generation Sees Continued Delays to Contract Award

<p >The Pentagon, White Home, and U.S. Congress have been reported on Could 14 to nonetheless be reviewing the U.S. Navy’s <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/lockheed-sixth-generation-fighter-design-rejected-navy">F/A-XX sixth era fighter </a>program. Appreciable delays to a call to award contracts for growth have threatened to pressure important adjustments to this system, at a time when the necessity for a extra succesful service based mostly fighter class has been perceived with rising urgency. “A choice hasn’t been made but. That call continues to be being decided by [the Pentagon] and repair leaders, with conversations amongst Congress as nicely. It’s an enormous program. Clearly these items don’t get settled on by one particular person. Leaders are making a call on whether or not to speculate. It’s all a part of the method,” an knowledgeable supply reported. “Whereas the Navy desires to maneuver ahead with awarding a contract, some Pentagon officers are in search of to delay this system by as much as three years,” three sources with data of this system knowledgeable Reuters, with “issues about engineering and manufacturing capability” remaining an excellent problem. Though the Navy was reported on March 25, to be set to announce a contract award for the fighter program’s engineering and manufacturing growth (EMD) part “this week,” this has but to materialise nearly two months later. </p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/16/article_6826e6e6436f12_54402783.jpeg" title="Sixth Technology Fighter Idea Artwork (Lockheed Martin)"></p><p >In contrast to the U.S. Air Drive and the Marine Corps which have invested closely in procuring the respective F-35A and F-35B fifth era fighters, the U.S. Navy has made solely very restricted investments in procuring its personal variant of the plane the F-35C. In consequence the overwhelming majority of the service’s fighter fleet is reliant on <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/navy-f18e-jordan-destroy-drones">fourth era F-18s</a>, which makes the F/A-XX program significantly important for the service. China’s <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/chinese-sixth-generation-cut-pentagon-demand-f35s-lockheed">unveiling</a> of flight prototypes of two separate sixth era fighters in December 2024, each of which have been <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/china-sixth-generation-heavyweight-fighter-fourth-flight">intensively flight examined </a>since then, has additional elevated the perceived must shortly deliver the F/A-XX into the EMD part.  Delaying the award of a contract by three years, Reuters famous, “would successfully cancel this system as it’s at the moment outlined… as a result of contracts and pricing would expire throughout that point making a brand new competitors nearly inevitable.” The U.S. Air Drive’s Subsequent Technology Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter, which was in March revealed to be supposed to supply a fighter designated the F-47, noticed the first contract to develop the plane introduced on March to have been awarded to Boeing. There was appreciable hypothesis that an incapacity to finance the event of two separate sixth era packages might result in the Navy being pressed to just accept a spinoff of the F-47 somewhat than a completely separate clear sheet new plane. </p>



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