WASHINGTON, March 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday announced the award of the contract for the development of the U.S. Air Force's next-generation fighter jet to Boeing.
Trump, the nation's 47th president, said in the Oval Office that the F-47 fighter jet "will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built."
Trump claimed that the F-47 is "the world's first sixth generation fighter jet" in a video posted by the White House on X platform.
"The Next Generation Air Dominance Platform (the F-47) contract is a monumental leap forward in securing America's air superiority for decades to come," Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force Gen. David Allvin said in a statement.
"The F-47 will have significantly longer range, more advanced stealth, be more sustainable, supportable, and have higher availability than our fifth-generation fighters," said Allvin.
The Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract for the program is expected to be worth approximately 20 billion U.S. dollars, although, across the life of the program, Boeing is in line to receive hundreds of billions of dollars in orders, The War Zone, a defense-analysis website, reported.
Each copy of the jet, once series production commences, has been estimated in the past to cost upwards of 300 million dollars, said the report. ■
