Lockheed Martin Skunk Works concept art of a sixth-generation fighter

Lockheed Martin Skunk Works concept art of a sixth-generation fighter. (Lockheed Martin)

WASHINGTON — The US Air Force today announced that the incoming Trump administration will officially decide the fate of a planned sixth-generation stealth fighter, which has been on pause as officials reevaluate the platform’s design and requirements. 

“The Secretary of the Air Force will defer the Next Generation Air Dominance way ahead decision to the next administration, while the Department of the Air Force continues its analysis and executes the necessary actions to ensure decision space remains intact for the NGAD program,” Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said in a statement today.

Stefanek added that the Air Force “is extending the current Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction contracts for the Next Generation Air Dominance program to further mature designs/systems while ensuring the industry teams remain intact.” To reflect the impact of delays with the program, the Air Force has also requested that bidding vendors “update their proposals,” Stefanek said, noting that they are a “schedule/milestone update only.”

Observers expected such an announcement after weeks of non-committal statements from Air Force officials all the way up the Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who has said a decision on NGAD would need to be made in time for the fiscal 2026 budget. That budget will now be crafted by Trump-appointed officials following the November election. 

The Air Force in 2023 set a target to award the NGAD contract to a winning vendor this year, though that plan hit a rough patch this summer after officials announced a pause in the plane’s development process to ensure they have the right design, as well as to attempt to bring its cost down.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin are believed to be in a dogfight for rights to build the stealth fighter after aerospace prime Northrop Grumman publicly exited the competition last year, though Northrop has recently entertained the possibility of reentering the fray if the jet’s requirements change.