The aerospace giant Boeing has been awarded the government contract to build the Air Force’s next-generation fighter jet, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday morning.
The jet, known as Next Generation Air Dominance, replaces the F-22 Raptor with a crewed aircraft capable of entering combat alongside drones. Trump said the newest fighter jet would be the F-47.
“The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built,” he said. “An experimental version of the plane has secretly been flying for almost five years, and we’re confident that it massively overpowers the capabilities of any other nation.”
Trump and Hegseth didn’t offer many details on the plane or its design, but the president said the country had ordered “a lot.”
“We can’t tell you the price because it would give way to some of the technology and some of the size of the plane,” Trump said.
Hegseth called Friday’s announcement a historic investment in the country’s military and its military-industrial base. The plane will be manufactured at Boeing’s defense branch, based in St. Louis at the site where $1.8 billion was invested in an expansion project next to Lambert International Airport.
The company had sought about $155 million in tax breaks for the project in exchange for guaranteeing 500 new high-paying jobs, which was controversial. St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said Friday’s announcement validated the county’s move to offer the incentives.
“It’s a big payoff,” he said. “These jobs will continue for decades: the supply chain for the construction, for the building, the planes, the services that are needed to support the facility.”
Friday’s announcement is a big win for the company, which employs more than 16,000 people at locations in north St. Louis County, St. Charles County and St. Clair County in the Metro East.
Boeing laid off almost 700 employees locally late last year as part of companywide cuts after the commercial side of the business has struggled lately and endured a seven-week strike in the Seattle area that halted production.
“We need to make big moves to keep our successful large employers here,” Page said. “And we need to be making moves to attract new employers here.”
The announcement drew praise from other business leaders in the region. Greater St. Louis Inc.’s Chief Business Attraction Officer Maggie Kost called the move a “generational impact” for the region for the next few decades.
“You can never take an employer for granted in your community,” she said. “Let alone one that depends on these big defense contracts like this. There was a whole coalition of folks at the state, county and local level that wanted to support Boeing in their bid for this.”
Kost added that Boeing’s successful bid extends to a broader local supply chain of hundreds of companies it relies on for parts.
“Those folks employ hundreds of thousands of people, so the impact of this contract is not just going to be at Boeing proper,” she said. “All of those suppliers’ communities across our region are going to feel it for generations to come.”
The contract for Boeing is also significant for St. Louis’ bet on developing the local advanced manufacturing sector, which continues to need more workers.
“There’s a reason why we have been doubling down on advanced manufacturing in our region,” Kost said. “It’s not without intention. It’s with projects like this in mind.”
The F-47 contract is the first for a fighter jet the U.S. military has awarded to Boeing in a while. The last two American fighters, the F-22 and F-35, are mostly produced by Lockheed Martin, although Boeing did manufacture parts for the F-22.
Boeing, Northrop and the now-defunct Berkeley-based McDonnell Douglas produced the F-15 and F-18 for the Air Force and Navy starting in the 1970s.
“We are thrilled this news came to Boeing today,” said Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, Lambert’s director. “We worked a long time with Boeing on the lease of the land where these current facilities are being built.”
Many of the facilities around Lambert were built more than 70 years ago, and some have sat vacant for decades, she said, adding her excitement to see the revitalization of the whole campus as the airport approaches terminal consolidation.
“The enhancement of our overall airport portfolio with the project that we’re embarking on and the projects that Boeing is embarking on, will really make a difference in the footprint of north county,” Hamm-Niebruegge said.
She added that Boeing winning the contract helps ensure the airport’s continued success.
“Both of the projects really validate the need for us to think futuristically, and not just about where we’re at today, but where’s our city and our state going as we think about 50 years down the road,” Hamm-Niebruegge said.
This story has been updated with comments from Sam Page, Maggie Kost and Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge.
