Delays and Competitions: The Race of 47’s Development Against F-22 and J-20

Boeing’s F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program confronts multifaceted challenges from funding considerations to technical obstacles, substantially delaying its progress since the contract award in 2025. The core challenge arises from the novel variable-cycle jet engines, still in developmental stages, marking a fundamental delay in the project’s timeline mainly centered around these engines slated for 2030. Comparing F-47’s progression to China’s ambitious pace, the National Security Journal points out that the project trails by as much as 4 years, drawing parallels between the U.S.’s experience with the F-22 Raptor and China’s success with the Chengdu J-20, accomplished in half…