The US’ recent announcement of the F-47 fighter jet has drawn intensive analyses from Chinese military affairs experts and observers. They acknowledged the aircraft being a real sixth-generation fighter jet for featuring typical characteristics such as a tailless design. However, they raised questions over its potentially limited stealth capability, relatively small size, and the US’ selection of Boeing to build the warplane.
The Pentagon has awarded the contract for the US Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance future fighter jet, known as NGAD, to Boeing. This sixth-generation fighter, which will replace the F-22 Raptor, will be designated the F-47. It will have state-of-the-art stealth technologies making it virtually unseeable and will fly alongside multiple autonomous drone wingmen known as collaborative combat aircraft.
After reviewing the artist renderings of the F-47 released by the US Air Force, Zhang Xuefeng, a Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times that the F-47’s appearance conforms to the general development trend of the sixth-generation fighter jet concept. For example, it does not feature any vertical tails, which is an attempt to further improve its stealth capability in all directions. It has a flat nose and a lifting-body fuselage, important characteristics of a sixth-generation fighter jet.
In December 2024, videos and photos emerged on social media allegedly showing two types of aircraft with new designs conducting test flights in China. Despite no official announcements, many called them China’s sixth-generation fighter jets. Wang Ya’nan, chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times that comparing with the size of the canopy and the front landing gear, it can be analyzed that the overall size of the F-47 is not likely much larger than the F-22. It means that the F-47 is still a tactical aircraft, rather than a large, multipurpose aerial platform capable of conducting campaign-scale missions like the ginkgo leaf aircraft.