In a strategic departure from its past approach to fighter jet development, the U.S. Air Force is taking decisive steps to ensure greater technological control and upgrade flexibility with its sixth-generation fighter jet, the Boeing-made F-47.

This new acquisition strategy reflects hard-learned lessons from the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and is designed to safeguard the Air Force’s future combat readiness and financial stewardship.

During a recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin confirmed to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., that the service has adopted a dramatically different acquisition model for the F-47, formerly known as the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program.

Allvin explained that the Air Force now holds significantly more control over the F-47’s development trajectory than it did with the F-35.

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“The primary difference is that we now have more control over the [F-47] project as it moves forward,” Allvin stated.

“We have in-sourced more. We have more ownership of the tech base. We guided a government reference architecture, so we own the mission systems. And so others can come in and play, but we own the development, the upgrade.”

A government reference architecture (GRA) is a detailed design framework set by the government, guiding how a program is developed, maintained, and evolved over time.

In the case of the F-47, this architecture ensures that the Air Force—not a private contractor—holds the reins when it comes to mission systems and future technology integration.

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This is a marked contrast to the F-35’s procurement model, which left the Department of War dependent on Lockheed Martin for sustainment and upgrades.

That approach, known as Total System Performance Responsibility (TSPR), handed long-term control of the system over to the contractor, limiting the military’s ability to manage costs and timelines effectively.

In fact, senior Air Force leaders have openly acknowledged the flaws of the F-35 deal.

In a May 2023 roundtable with reporters, former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall called the Pentagon’s failure to obtain the F-35’s sustainment data a serious error, referring to it as “acquisition malpractice.”

Kendall’s frustrations were echoed in a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released in September 2023, which highlighted how the lack of access to critical technical data had impeded the military’s ability to independently sustain and repair the F-35.

According to Kendall, the consequences of this structure created “a perpetual monopoly” for Lockheed Martin and drove home the need for a more modular, open system approach for future platforms.

With the F-47, Kendall committed to ensuring the Air Force would “have access to the intellectual property it needs” and be able to integrate new technologies from a range of vendors.

Gen. Allvin’s recent testimony confirms that commitment has been kept.

The Air Force’s new acquisition strategy means the F-47 can receive rapid upgrades via software without being bottlenecked by contractor timelines or cost structures.

“The upgrades can come at the speed of software, not hardware. [Upgrades] can come at the speed of our engineers understanding how fast to advance, versus dealing with the contractor and paying the extra cost,” Allvin explained.

This forward-looking design philosophy also extends beyond the F-47.

Allvin emphasized that the Air Force’s new collaborative combat aircraft—such as the YFQ-42 and YFQ-44, being developed by General Atomics and Anduril Industries—will also benefit from the shared mission systems architecture.

“They’re all going to be under the same mission systems architecture,” Allvin said.

“So we won’t just be upgrading one platform, we’ll be upgrading a system, and so the American taxpayer will get more combat capability out of their money.”

Allvin was candid about the lessons learned from the F-35 program and expressed confidence that the Air Force is charting a better course with the F-47.

“We’re going to have some conversations about F-35 and how we don’t want to repeat that,” he said.

By reclaiming ownership of the technological foundation and adopting a flexible, open system approach, the Air Force aims to ensure the F-47 and associated systems remain agile, cost-effective, and technologically superior for decades to come.

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