Boeing's F-47 - the world's first sixth-generation fighter, awarded a $20 billion contract on March 21, 2025 - replaces the F-22 Raptor with a 1,000-nautical-mile combat radius, all-aspect broadband multi-spectral stealth, and an adaptive cycle engine capable of Mach 2 combat thrust and 30% greater range efficiency.
The Air Force plans to field over 1,000 Collaborative Combat Aircraft drone wingmen alongside it - the Anduril YFQ-44A Fury now in serial production at Arsenal-1 in Ohio, the General Atomics YFQ-42A Dark Merlin back in flight testing after a six-week grounding, and Shield AI's X-BAT VTOL autonomous combat drone with a 2,000nm range and no runway required at $27M per unit.
A former F-15E combat pilot and Thunderbird breaks down what the F-47 strike package would have done to Iran's Bavar-373 air defense network during Operation Epic Fury, how the system defeats China's A2AD architecture, and why the Fury entering production three months early is the most important defense story of 2026.
