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The Navy plans to replace its F/A-18E/F fleet with the future F/A-XX.
Senate authorizers want to take almost all of the remaining funding away from the U.S. Navy’s fiscal 2025 budget request for its next-generation F/A-XX fighter, further pushing back the program to prioritize shipbuilding.
The Navy’s fiscal 2025 budget request calls for $453.8 million for its Next Generation Fighter program, also known as F/A-XX. This amounts to a roughly $1 billion reduction from the prior year’s request in what service officials have said is a re-phased approach to the program, with money moving to higher near-term priorities.
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill released earlier this month removes another $400 million from that total, leaving the Navy just $53 million in authorized spending for the program. That $400 million is shifted to the service’s shipbuilding accounts.
The $53 million is a paltry amount compared to the $2.1 billion in total requested in fiscal 2024.
Navy officials have said they remain committed to the program despite the significant funding cut. Erik Raven, the service’s undersecretary, said in March that F/A-XX would continue with more funding to come in later years as technology matures.
The program is in source selection, with Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman competing for the engineering and manufacturing development contract. Additionally, GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney are competing for the engine.
In July 2023, the White House linked the F/A-XX program with a special access program in the Defense Department budget called Link Plumeria, with an expected $11.5 billion budget for fiscal 2023-27. The administration highlighted the program as a top priority amid Congressional delays in approving the Pentagon’s budget.
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