US President Donald Trump has announced that the US Air Force is "moving forward" with a plan to acquire "the world's first sixth-generation fighter".
He pointed out that "nothing in the world even comes close to it" and the aircraft will be known as the F-47.
"This is something that no one has ever seen before in terms of all the characteristics of a fighter jet, there has never been anything even close to it - from speed to maneuverability to what it can carry as a payload, and this has been in the works for a long time," the president explained.
In addition, Trump revealed that the US Air Force will award Boeing the contract for the next generation Air Dominance platform. He also said the new F-47 would be "the most advanced, capable and lethal aircraft ever built".
The new fighter is expected to succeed the Lockheed Martin F-22, which entered service two decades ago as the Air Force's top air superiority fighter, and will be designed to work with drones.
The news comes as the US military looks across the Pacific to China, which the Pentagon has described as its "tempo challenge". Beijing's long-range air defense and electronic warfare capabilities have advanced dramatically since the F-22 was grounded. The Chinese military has deployed capable fifth-generation fighters and has flown prototypes of sixth-generation fighters.
These achievements by a top U.S. military rival make the creation of the new fighter, which senior Air Force officials say should be capable of achieving air superiority, critical.
The design of the new fighter is unclear, but it is believed to include advanced stealth technology and other high-end sensors that surpass even the best capabilities of current fifth-generation aircraft.