US Navy 6th Gen Fighter - F/A-XX

Congress - you love to hate it and you hate to love it.

Want to retire A-10s because they are useless now? Cant do that. Want to retire non - combat coded F-22's? nope ya cant do that either.

But here we are in 2026 with congress being the only reason F/A-XX and the E7 are still alive and stopping the absolute lunacy of cancelling these programs.

We should have some more news coming soon. From breaking defense:

The bill also directs the Navy to submit a report with a revised schedule for F/A-XX and information on “any programmatic, budgetary, or policy barriers that have delayed execution” of the program, noting that the department “expended nearly all fiscal year 2025 funding on contract extensions with minimal demonstrated value to the program.”
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Without fluency in budgetary speak, that sounds like a whole year lost with no progress.
 
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Reddington777 said:
Congress - you love to hate it and you hate to love it.

Want to retire A-10s because they are useless now? Cant do that. Want to retire non - combat coded F-22's? nope ya cant do that either.

But here we are in 2026 with congress being the only reason F/A-XX and the E7 are still alive and stopping the absolute lunacy of cancelling these programs.

We should have some more news coming soon. From breaking defense:


Without fluency in budgetary speak, that sounds like a whole year lost with no progress.
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Congress has always had the power to be a force for good and the system is supposed to have them balance the executives whims but they often just don't, to much frustration.
 
The text from the Joint Explanatory Statement is here,

FIA-XX
The agreement supports the Navy's efforts to develop the FIA-XX sixth generation fighter and understands the program's unique capability in delivering air superiority to the fleet, including greater operational range, speed, stealth, and enhanced survivability. The agreement notes the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 provided $453,828,000 to align to the program's acquisition schedule which assumed a March 2025 award for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD). However, rather than proceeding with a Milestone B award, the Department expended nearly all fiscal year 2025 funding on contract extensions with minimal demonstrated value to the program. The agreement provides $897,260,000 above the fiscal year 2026 President's budget request to continue FIA-XX development and directs the Secretary of Defense to obligate these and any prior funds for the purposes of awarding the EMD contract limited to one performer in accordance with the acquisition strategy to achieve an accelerated Initial Operational Capability (IOC). Further, the Secretary of the Navy is directed, not later than 45 days after the enactment of this Act, to submit a report to the congressional defense committees that details: (1) the current acquisition strategy and updated schedule for awarding the EMD contract; (2) a revised development and fielding timeline for the F/A-XX program to meet IOC; (3) any programmatic, budgetary, or policy barriers that have delayed execution of prior-year funds; and (4) a spend plan for the active year additional funds that have been appropriated to the Department of Defense for this program. This language replaces the language under the heading "F / A-XX" in House Report 119-162.
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Should think so too Forest Green, for the Pentagon to shelve it completely would be a mistake and to leave the US Navy without a viable replacement for the Super Hornet would be wrong in my view.
 
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Reddington777 said:
Congress - you love to hate it and you hate to love it.

Want to retire A-10s because they are useless now? Cant do that. Want to retire non - combat coded F-22's? nope ya cant do that either.

But here we are in 2026 with congress being the only reason F/A-XX and the E7 are still alive and stopping the absolute lunacy of cancelling these programs.

We should have some more news coming soon. From breaking defense:


Without fluency in budgetary speak, that sounds like a whole year lost with no progress.
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Politicians need their gravy. To hell with what anybody else wants.
 
Too much interference from the SECDEF Moose, you are right about the US Navy they should have awarded the contract at the same time as the NGAD/F-47 award and be done with it.
 
FighterJock said:
Too much interference from the SECDEF Moose, you are right about the US Navy they should have awarded the contract at the same time as the NGAD/F-47 award and be done with it.
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It could be they're just trying to convince themselves that the industrial base can handle it without honking up the F-47. Thing is, even if it does, they still need to do it. It might blow things up for a while, but they'll never get it there otherwise.
 
"The agreement notes the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 provided $453,828,000 to align to the program's acquisition schedule which assumed a March 2025 award for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD). However, rather than proceeding with a Milestone B award, the Department expended nearly all fiscal year 2025 funding on contract extensions with minimal demonstrated value to the program."

So they waisted half a billion dollars for nothing??? Wtf Hegseth
 
The program is saved...for now.

I wouldn't hold my breath though, US Navy advanced attack and fighter programs tend to go the way of the dodo. Just looking at how ATA, A/F-X and NATF went nowhere in the ultimate end.

Never do business with the darn Navy
 
That was what Lockheed Martin said after getting a raw deal with the Sea Shadow EmoBirb when the Navy cancled it, let's wait and see what actually happens to the F/A-XX program. Fingers and toes crossed it does not end up like the aforementioned Sea Shadow.
 
FighterJock said:
That was what Lockheed Martin said after getting a raw deal with the Sea Shadow EmoBirb when the Navy cancled it, let's wait and see what actually happens to the F/A-XX program. Fingers and toes crossed it does not end up like the aforementioned Sea Shadow.
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Predates the sea shadow, even. Wasn’t that Kelly Johnson’s famous position on working with the Navy from back in the ‘50s?
 
yeetmahboi said:
What were these supposed contract extensions orchestrate to prove here?
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The extensions weren't to prove anything, Congress appropriated funding for the Milestone B award and to launch the next phase of the program. DOD (Hegseth) told Navy to postpone down-select indefinitely, but the bidders (and supporting contractors) still need to get paid while they wait. So that money was used to stretch out the existing contracts for another year.
 
donnage99 said:
"The agreement notes the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 provided $453,828,000 to align to the program's acquisition schedule which assumed a March 2025 award for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD). However, rather than proceeding with a Milestone B award, the Department expended nearly all fiscal year 2025 funding on contract extensions with minimal demonstrated value to the program."

So they waisted half a billion dollars for nothing??? Wtf Hegseth
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Amid the delay, the Navy has awarded contracts to both competitors to keep their design teams working. This money is not simply to keep lights on, Duffey noted. “There’s a lot of work to be done.”
 
Sferrin said:

Amid the delay, the Navy has awarded contracts to both competitors to keep their design teams working. This money is not simply to keep lights on, Duffey noted. “There’s a lot of work to be done.”
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That’s what I initially thought but right there in the quote they said most of the money for the year was spent with “minimal demonstrated value to the program."

Unless it was just hyperbolic criticism I had thought the money was spent to further refine and risk reducing each competitors respective design, which would constitute “demonstrated value” to the program
 
insidersource said:
Both of your names are in the image in the bottom right corner. Rodrigo took your model and rendered it. I took Rodrigos render and spent over an hour in photoshop with dozens of layers manually painting the images to make them unique.
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That's not how it works
 

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Why did they not call it the F/A-XX program office from the off since that would mean less problems in confusion over the USAF NGAD/F-47? :confused:
 
Are the dragon’s wings supposed to be an AESA radar multi-beam scan? Curious if anyone knows where this come from. And what are those three lines on the sea supposed to hint at?
 
DeltaGreen said:
Are the dragon’s wings supposed to be an AESA radar multi-beam scan? Curious if anyone knows where this come from. And what are those three lines on the sea supposed to hint at?
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Could be:

Wings - Targeting information from satellite AMTI/GMTI; and
Three lines - CCAs... either that or loyal frogmen, I dunno.
 

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