F/A-XX: Why the U.S. Is Putting All Its Fighter Eggs in the Boeing Basket

A six-paragraph news release at 5:01 pm on Tuesday was all that marked the launch of one of the biggest U.S. Navy projects of the 21st century: the service had picked Boeing, over Northrop Grumman, to develop its future F/A-XX combat aircraft under a $20 billion contract. From the mid-2030s, the F/A-XX will replace F/A-18 Hornet fighters and EA-18 Growler electronic attack aircraft.

Incredulity was the main public reaction, for understandable reasons. It was known that the F/A-XX competition was down to Boeing and Northrop Grumman. And Boeing had beaten Lockheed Martin in March 2025 in the contest to build the Air Force’s F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) aircraft, so giving it the F/A-XX program would mean, most unattractively, putting all the Pentagon’s fighter-development eggs in one basket.

So the first question is: why would the Defense Department do this? Lockheed Martin has enjoyed a near-monopoly position since its plump cuckoo-chick, the F-35 Lightning, tossed its last rival, the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, out of the nest. Even now, the long-troubled F-35 program is suffering computer problems that have left new aircraft only partially capable since 2023.

The second question: Boeing?! The company’s military division, Boeing Defense and Space, hasn’t exactly been hitting a lot of home runs lately. Its KC-46 Pegasus tanker program has been a sad story, and its T-7 Red Hawk trainer is following a pathway that looks rocky, at least. Next, its revival of the E-7 Wedgetail air-surveillance aircraft for the 2030s and beyond seems to be harder than developing a new type.