The contract announcement follows months of uncertainty due to budget constraints and shifting priorities that led to a pause and a detailed review of the program.
During a major Oval Office address on Friday, President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced a new sixth-generation fighter jet costing $20 billion. In an unbelievable move, Trump named the jet after himself — the F47 — emphasizing his place in history as President of the United States.
"The F47 will be the most advanced, capable, and lethal aircraft ever built. We're confident that it overpowers the capabilities of any nation," he said before adding: "47 is a lovely number, isn't it."
The P-38 was more of a Fighter-Escort than an interceptor. The P-51 is the most widely accepted best fighter interceptor of WW2.
The P-38 was absolutely extremely versatile, but as for an interceptor, the Mustang was better all around as a fighter and interceptor. Faster, longer range, more agile, better armed for air-to-air combat, and lower stall speed.
The P-38s would escort bombers on the first leg and hand over to P-51s, over an active combat zone, because the P-51 was so superior of a fighter interceptor.
So it will be an overly expensive, bloated, but ultimately ineffective jet that will become known for its much higher rate of friendly fire incidents than any other jet in history.
Also it will look ugly and have oddly small wings.
It also has remote access capabilities used exclusively by Putin, but people seem totally fine with that part because the jet was promised to only be used to hurt the right people.
This fucker is wildly attempting any/all paths to find a way to leave an indelible historical mark of himself...
Guess "Lyingist Liar First Felon Mafia Level Attempt at a President and Killer of US Democracy" isn't working for him...
He's already got an indelible place in history all right. And nothing he manages to accomplish from now till his death will be sufficient to erase that lasting legacy.
The world news said it wasn't for Trumps name I thought. They said it was for the year the Air Force started. An Air Force officer or someone high up got to choose and they chose the number. Trump just likes it because he's a narcissist.
With Boeing showing a gross lack of quality and poor engineering in every project recently, them building a trump-named fighter makes a twisted sort of sense. I suppose it will just limp to the target area and than explode itself, for some astronomical amount of money. As usual lately, Putin will be very pleased.
I thought the era of fighter jets was ending with lasers making them obsolete. By the time this thing sees the light of day, it should be garbage, right?
Let the ‘hog die the graceful end it deserves - in the hearts and memories of ground pounders. The Frogfoots are getting wrecked in Ukraine when they try to do CAS, that mission is over unless you’re splattering goat herders, and even militants have MANPADs now.
Super Tucano is all you need for low intensity/asymmetrical conflict and COIN, otherwise busting tanks is better done by ATGMs and AT mines.
I'm sorry, the A-10 is the most American aircraft to ever be engineered. Think about it, when it first debuted it didn't give two shits about friendlies of foes. That motherfucker just sprayed and prayed, often to our allies dismay. But over time she proved useful and outright scary when you heard those beautiful brrrrrrrts, like a glorious and triumphant eagle scream. They've tried to retire her a million times, she's persevered. She'll always has a glorious spot in my heart.
Edit 2: On a serious note, yes using the A-10 for CAS isn't in Ukraine's cards, but that doesn't mean she's out of the fight! 💪