Boeing beat out rival Lockheed Martin to win the contract for the Next Generation Air Dominance program.

The plane will be dubbed the F-47 and eventually replace the military’s existing 187 operational F-22 Raptor fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin.

“An experimental version of the plane has secretly been flying for almost five years, and we’re confident that it massively overpowers capabilities of any other nation,” Trump told reporters at the White House, flanked by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth

“It’s something the likes that no one has seen before.”

The sixth-generation jet fighter is meant to be able to fight next to unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, something seen as a major part of future air combat.

In 2009, then Secretary of Defense Bob Gates canceled the F-22 Raptor program, after just under half of the 381 jets originally ordered were delivered.

The new F-47s are meant to augment and eventually replace the existing F-22s, the last of which were delivered in 2012.

Gates argued at the time that the 5th generation 5th generation stealth air-superiority fighter with ground attack capabilities was no longer required, as the United States was no longer engaged in wars requiring significant air-to-air combat missions.

Congress later considered restarting the program in 2017 but ultimately embraced Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning as the American military’s principal manned fighter. The F-35s cost between $82 million and $102 million depending on the variant with orders for up to 1,760 of the jets.

Several American allies fly the planes while the program to build them factored in battlefield continuity. It has also been criticized for cost overruns and delays.

In 2023, Canada became the latest country to buy the planes, when it signed an order for 88 of the fighter jets to replace its aging McDonnell Douglas-built CF-18 Hornets.