The U.S. Navy has been flying the F/A-18 Super Hornet since 1999, and it's still flying combat missions today. But the Super Hornet's production line is closing, and the aircraft that was always meant to follow it, the F/A-XX 6th gen fighter, has been stuck in a procurement fog of budget fights, Pentagon indecision, and contractor drama for years. Right now, Northrop Grumman and Boeing are the last two companies standing, and a contract decision could finally be coming this year. Here's everything that actually matters about the program, what Northrop Grumman is bringing to the table, and whether this aircraft will ever get built.
Why the Navy Needs an F-18 Successor Right Now
The Super Hornet has had an extraordinary run. It hit 12 million combined flight hours in August 2025, flew combat sorties over Iran in 2025 and 2026, and the Blue Angels still use it. But the production line is shutting down. In January 2026, Northrop Grumman (which manufactures aft fuselage sections for the aircraft) confirmed delivery of its final components for new-build Super Hornets, with full production expected to close in 2027 after a final 17-aircraft order.
The problem isn't just production, it's relevance. China's air forces have modernized at a pace that wasn't anticipated when the Super Hornet entered service. The Navy's ability to project power from carriers in the Western Pacific depends on having an aircraft that can penetrate layered air defense environments where a 1990s-era design, even in Block III configuration, is increasingly at risk. That's the core argument for the F/A-XX, and it's the argument the Navy keeps making to a skeptical Pentagon and White House.
What Happened to Lockheed Martin
Not long ago, three companies were competing for the F/A-XX contract: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. Lockheed was expected to be a serious contender, given that it's the prime contractor on the F-35, including the carrier-based F-35C. But in early March 2025, Reuters reported that Lockheed had been eliminated from the competition. Its proposed design reportedly failed to meet the Navy's requirements. That was a significant setback for a company that had dominated recent U.S. combat aircraft acquisitions.
A few weeks later, Boeing was awarded the Air Force's F-47 NGAD contract, which many had expected to go to Lockheed. In one month, Lockheed Martin lost two of the biggest fighter competitions in a generation. That left only Boeing and Northrop Grumman competing for the Navy's 6th gen aircraft, and it's those two companies that have been publicly showcasing concepts ever since.
Northrop Grumman's F/A-XX Concept: What We Know
Northrop Grumman has been notably secretive about its F/A-XX design, which is pretty typical for the company that builds the B-21 Raider. In August 2025, it finally released official concept art on the Naval Aviation section of its website. What emerged gave aviation analysts quite a bit to work with, even if the framing and heavy shadowing of the image were clearly deliberate.
The rendering shows the nose, cockpit, and forward fuselage of the aircraft on a carrier deck, poised for a catapult launch. A few things stand out. The nose is elongated and sharply pointed, which analysts read as designed to house an advanced electronically scanned array (AESA) radar for long-range detection and targeting. The air intake is mounted on top of the fuselage behind the cockpit, a configuration that dramatically reduces the aircraft's radar signature from the front and below. The overall blended fuselage and wing structure, with flowing radiused surfaces, draws clear comparisons to Northrop's own B-21 Raider. And the heavy-duty twin-wheel nose gear with a catapult launch bar confirms this is designed for carrier operations on Ford-class and Nimitz-class ships.
The design draws clear comparisons to the B-21 Raider, which tells you a lot about where Northrop Grumman's stealth philosophy has landed in 2025.
There's also a visual resemblance to Northrop's YF-23 Black Widow II, the aircraft that lost the Advanced Tactical Fighter competition to the F-22 back in 1991. The YF-23 was widely considered the stealthier of the two designs, emphasizing low observability over maneuverability. It looks like Northrop is bringing that same philosophy to its 6th gen naval concept. Most recently, on April 20, 2026, Northrop released a new teaser video showing more of the design at the Sea-Air-Space convention, including a head-on view revealing the tailless configuration in more detail.
What the 6th Gen Fighter Actually Has to Do
It's easy to get lost in the concept art and lose sight of what the Navy is actually asking for. The F/A-XX requirements are demanding, and they're shaped by what the Super Hornet and F-35C can't do in the threat environments the Navy expects to operate in by the 2030s and 2040s.
Beyond range, the requirement list includes extended endurance for long carrier deployments, higher speed, advanced passive and active sensor fusion, long-range weapon systems including directed energy (laser weapons), and deep integration with unmanned collaborative combat aircraft. That last point might be the most consequential. The F/A-XX is envisioned not just as a fighter but as a command hub, capable of controlling a swarm of autonomous drones while conducting its own strike or air superiority mission. That's a fundamentally different design challenge than building a faster, stealthier Super Hornet. The aircraft needs to be a network node, not just a platform.
Boeing vs. Northrop Grumman: How the Two Bids Compare
Boeing has a clear industrial argument. It built the Super Hornet in St. Louis, and that facility is now idle after production ended. Boeing also just won the F-47 NGAD contract for the Air Force, which means it has active 6th gen development underway. The argument is that common avionics, engines, and manufacturing processes could bring down the cost and timeline for a naval variant.
The Navy, however, has explicitly said it does not want a navalized version of an Air Force aircraft. That's a direct reference to the F-35 experience, where the carrier variant (F-35C) ended up being the heaviest, most expensive, and most delayed version of an already troubled program. Designing carrier compatibility into an aircraft from the ground up is a fundamentally different exercise than bolting it on afterward. The Navy learned that the hard way with the F-35C, and it's not eager to repeat the lesson with its 6th gen fighter.
| Factor | Boeing | Northrop Grumman |
|---|---|---|
| Active 6th gen fighter program | Yes (F-47 for USAF) | No (exited USAF NGAD in 2023) |
| Carrier fighter production history | Yes (F/A-18 Super Hornet) | Last carrier fighter: F-14 Tomcat |
| Active next-gen platform | F-47 NGAD | B-21 Raider bomber |
| Navy's concern | Navalized F-47 risk | Industrial bandwidth (B-21 production) |
| Stealth philosophy | F-47 design lineage | B-21/YF-23 lineage |
Northrop's argument is different. The company exited the Air Force NGAD competition in 2023, specifically stating it would focus on the Navy program and the B-21. Its F/A-XX concept is being designed as a dedicated naval aircraft from the beginning. The stealth design language, drawing from the B-21 and the old YF-23, also suggests Northrop is betting heavily on low observability over maneuverability, which aligns with what the Navy says it wants for operations in contested Indo-Pacific environments. The concern on the Northrop side is industrial bandwidth. The company is already deep into B-21 Raider production, with calls to more than double the original 100-aircraft order. Can it handle both programs at scale simultaneously?
The Budget Battle That Nearly Killed the Program
If you've followed this program, you know the funding story is almost as dramatic as the aircraft itself. The F/A-XX has been funded, defunded, partially refunded, and fought over by Congress and the Pentagon on an almost annual basis. Here's a condensed version of what happened.
The FY2026 budget initially requested only $74 million for F/A-XX, essentially enough to keep the lights on. The Navy's Unfunded Priorities List included an additional $1.4 billion request, which signals how seriously the service views the program even when the Pentagon doesn't. Congress ultimately stepped in, allocating approximately $972 million in R&D funds for F/A-XX in the FY2026 defense appropriations bill, a dramatic reversal that moved the program forward into the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase. Congress also directed the Navy to award a single EMD contract to one vendor as quickly as possible, calling out the Pentagon for having spent nearly all of the FY2025 funding on contract extensions with "minimal demonstrated value."
Congress called the Pentagon out for spending FY2025 funding on contract extensions with "minimal demonstrated value." That's a rare and pointed rebuke in defense acquisition language.
As of April 2026, the program has approximately $972 million in FY2026 funding, plus an additional $750 million tied to a reconciliation bill. That's meaningful money, but the F-47 received $3.4 billion in the same period. The funding disparity tells you something about where the program sits in the overall Pentagon priority stack, even as Navy officials continue to insist the aircraft is critical to maintaining carrier strike effectiveness through the 2040s.
When Will a Contract Actually Be Awarded?
That's the question everyone is asking, and the answer keeps changing. The original plan was to award an EMD contract to a single vendor in March 2025. That didn't happen. The Navy's Chief of Naval Operations stated in April 2026 that a final selection between Boeing and Northrop Grumman would come in August 2026. That's the most concrete timeline currently on record, but given the program's history, treating any date as firm would be naive.
What's different now is that Congress has been unusually direct about its expectations. The FY2026 appropriations language explicitly states that funding must be used to award an EMD contract to a single vendor, not to fund more studies and extensions. Lawmakers have also requested a full report on the acquisition strategy, program schedule, and target date for Initial Operational Capability. That kind of congressional pressure doesn't guarantee a contract award, but it makes it harder for the Pentagon to keep deferring the decision without explanation.
What This Means for the Future of Carrier Aviation
Here's the bigger picture. The Super Hornet is retiring. The F-35C is a capable aircraft but it was never designed for the range and survivability demands of a major conflict in the Western Pacific. The F/A-XX, whatever form it takes and whoever builds it, is the aircraft that's supposed to carry U.S. carrier aviation through the second half of the 21st century. Getting it wrong, building a naval variant of an Air Force fighter, funding it too late, or not funding it at all, would leave a genuine capability gap in U.S. naval power at precisely the moment when Chinese carrier aviation is expanding rapidly.
In my view, the most significant thing about the Northrop Grumman approach is the willingness to build something genuinely designed for the carrier environment from day one, rather than adapting an existing platform. Whether the company has the industrial capacity to deliver on that vision alongside the B-21 program is a legitimate question. But the design philosophy, heavy stealth, AI-assisted systems, drone teaming, and carrier-specific engineering, looks like the right answer to the right problem. Whether the Pentagon agrees, and funds it accordingly, is a different question entirely.
Where Things Stand and What to Watch
The F/A-XX 6th gen program is more alive in April 2026 than it was a year ago, largely because Congress forced the issue. Northrop Grumman unveiled fresh concept video at Sea-Air-Space just this week. A contract decision between Boeing and Northrop Grumman is targeted for August 2026, pending what feels like the tenth "final" deadline the program has set for itself. The aircraft, if awarded and funded appropriately, would enter service sometime in the 2030s, replacing the Super Hornet fleet that is simultaneously at the peak of its combat operations and the end of its production run.
If you want to stay current on this program, bookmark The War Zone and USNI News for contract updates, and keep an eye on the Sea-Air-Space convention coverage coming out this week. If you found this breakdown useful, our full explainer on the Boeing F-47 NGAD program walks through how the Air Force's 6th gen fighter differs from what the Navy is building, and why the Pentagon is funding them so differently. That context makes the F/A-XX budget fights a lot easier to understand.
