Pentagon reshapes air power with new stealth bombers and fighter planes

The race for the development of 6th generation planes is no longer a future vision – it is now a decisive force behind the American defense strategy.

With advanced platforms such as the B-21 Raider, the F-47 and the Navy F / A-XX on the horizon, the Pentagon resumes how the United States project air power for the next 50 years.

These planes promise unprecedented progress, stealth and autonomy – but they also collide with budgetary pressures, industrial capacity limits and an increasingly uncertain global threat environment.

B-21 Raider: A stealth inheritance continues

The B-21 Raider of Northrop Grumman is about to become the backbone of the long-term striking capacity. With its furtive new generation conception, its reduced maintenance charge and its affordability compared to its predecessor B-2, the B-21 is considered essential to dissuade strategic threats such as China and Iran.

The emergency became clear last week when seven B-2 bombers carried out an 18-hour mission in Iran, dropping bunker bombs on nuclear targets. Although effective, high cost and high aging systems of the B-2 highlight the need for its replacement. At 692 million dollars per plane – compared to $ 2 billion for a B -2 – the B -21 offers a more sustainable strategic range.

The stealth bombardier of high technology can transport nuclear and conventional weapons and is designed to be inhabited, which means that it could fly without crew on board.

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Flight tests are already underway at the base of the Air Force Edwards, with three B-21 in the air and the first units which should reach the operational capacity by 2027. The Air Force has engaged at least 100 looters, with internal discussions floating a potential increase to 200.

“What we need to consider is to double the production capacity as quickly as possible to inform this inventory,” General David Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Power Studies told Fox News.

The new B-21 Raider is unveiled during a ceremony at the Air Force 42 factory of Northrop Grumman in Palmdale, California. (Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images)

F-47 and the NGAD renewal

Once blocked, the air dominance program for the next generation of the Air Force (NGAD) has resumed life this spring under a new name and a new contract. Now designated the F -47, the program – awarded to Boeing – is designed to be the most advanced inhabited fighter in American history. Its capacities will include stealth, extended range, speeds exceeding Mach 2 and integration with a new class of compatible drones AI called collaborative Aircraft (CCA).

The F-47 will serve as a “quarter” for a team of 1,000 CCA, controlling them in combat and coordinating the sensors and targeting the data in real time.

“It is extremely important that President Trump has carried out the Air Force platform,” said former representative Mike Garcia, R-Calif. “This academic debate on unmanned platforms is ambitious – but the networks are simply not there.”

The plane has an ambitious calendar for the initial operational capacity – in the 2025-2029 range, according to a graph published by the Air Force Chief of Staff David Allvin on X.

The Pentagon is going to all on the F-47 in the 2026 budget: request $ 3.5 billion while reducing its F-35 request from 74 to 47. Garcia, a former navy pilot, stressed that human pilots are still essential to manage the complexity of the 21st century war.

However, others within the Pentagon argue that inhabited fighters can become obsolete before the F-47 is even completely aligned.

“AI technologies are changing much faster than anyone planned,” said a former senior defense. “If they continue to evolve in five years … You are exactly on the wrong path.”

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Deptule has decried “arbitrary” budgets that have been fixed by the congress rather than the determination of defense officials on what they need to prepare and argued that the most expensive F-47 could be able to do much more work than less elite planes.

“Individually, the F-47 could be more expensive than an previous fighter plane, but if it can reach 15, 20, 30, 40 times, what it would take to achieve the particular result using non-sabrial or other cheaper planes, which offers the most value? So, this is where the decision calculation must go.”

President Donald Trump revealed a F-47 rendering during a White House ceremony in March. (Reuters / Carlos Barria)

F / A-XX: Naval air power, deliberately delayed

Unlike the Air Force, the navy moves slowly with its own 6th generation project – F / A -XX. Garcia considers this to be intentional, noting that naval cells must withstand much greater environmental challenges than their air force counterparts.

Managers still do not know if the fighter plane for the next generation of the navy, F / A-XX, goes ahead, according to the budget proposal for the 2026.

“Pending a decision by the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of Defense and the President,” a defense official for journalists told. “It is an active conversation, whether to continue the program or not.”

The program will take place now with “minimal funding” for the design in the budget, said the manager.

“Design a naval variant of an Air Force plane on the same chronology? It is impossible to do it correctly.”

Instead, the navy should borrow technology – such as engines and sensors – from NGAD while building a fighter capable of a single carrier adapted to salt water, catapults and combat bridge operations.

However, Garcia warned that the navy has a deeper and under-declared problem: a deficit of strike fighters based on the carriers.

The Pentagon goes all on the F-47 in the 2026 budget: ask for $ 3.5 billion while reducing its F-35 request from 74 to 47. (Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon / File photo)

“A 6th generation golden plane in low quantities is not the answer. A little less the capacity in higher number is what the navy needs.”

However, Deptule said there was a question of whether the aircraft carriers will even continue to be viable in the future.

“The question that many people from the Ministry of Defense are posing is the viability of an aircraft carrier in a future world proliferated by hypersonic and very precise missiles with ranges of more than 1500 miles.”

Transporters “project power” in low threat environments, said Deptula, but “most people recognize that you are not going to put the aircraft carriers to use the plane”.

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“The navy wants to look and get billions of dollars more for the sixth generation. People who want to look at our deficit of 2 billions of dollars should keep this in mind here,” said another former defense official.