Michael Marrowon
After years of development, the Air Force broke cover on its futuristic stealth fighter in May 2023 to announce that a winner would be picked to build the platform in 2024, teeing up the highly anticipated next generation of airpower.
And then reality started to set in, leading to what is perhaps the Air Force’s biggest programmatic headwind of the year: the question over whether it will field the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter at all and, if so, in what form.
The trouble started this summer, when whispers about NGAD’s fate first started swirling around Washington. Budget constraints bearing down on the Air Force — thanks to high-profile headaches like cost overruns with the nuclear-tipped Sentinel ballistic missile and pricey new programs like the B-21 Raider — began to exact their toll as the service built out its fiscal 2026 budget.
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