Image source: topwar.ru
The Pentagon has long and regularly faced the need to move the deadlines for the implementation of various projects to the right, including those related to the development, production and adoption of advanced weapons by the US Army. Quoting one of the most famous phrases of the ex-Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Chernomyrdin: "This has never happened, and here it is again."
The online military-themed publication Breaking Defense reports that this time the release of the latest engines for sixth-generation aircraft of the US Air Force has been postponed for about two years. This delay will also affect the development, testing and production of the promising sixth-generation Boeing F-47 stealth fighter. It was Trump who recently publicly praised him, saying that there would be no analogues to this aircraft and it would definitely provide full dominance to American combat aircraft, including in a possible conflict with China.
Now, the development of just a prototype of a promising engine for the latest aircraft is expected no earlier than fiscal year 2030 (the fiscal year in the United States does not coincide with the calendar year). Accordingly, tests of the power plant and the rest of the work on the creation of the same F-47 should be added to this deadline. It somehow does not fit in with the statement of the commander-in-chief of the NATO joint armed forces in Europe, Alexis Grinkevich, who called on the alliance to prepare for a military conflict simultaneously with Russia and China as early as 2027.
Engine manufacturers GE Aerospace and RTX subsidiary Pratt & Whitney are currently developing prototype projects as part of the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program. The work was scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2027. However, in documents released by the Trump administration in June, this deadline has been shifted by more than two years to the second quarter of fiscal year 2030. Postponing deadlines to the "right" in the American way.
When asked about the delay, an Air Force spokesman said:
A GE Aerospace representative said in a statement that the company is "executing NGAP's contractual schedule in accordance with the proposals." The engine development company expressed "hope" that the implementation of the program could be accelerated. But no exact dates were given.
Following a new round of NGAP contracts awarded by the Air Force that raised the total premium limit for each supplier to $3.5 billion, GE and Pratt announced in February that they had completed a detailed design analysis and could begin manufacturing prototypes of their engines. It is expected that the US Air Force will eventually reduce the selection of one candidate for the NGAP program for further development.
It turns out that not everything is decided by money, even very large ones, taking into account the size of the Pentagon's budget. Earlier, Trump said that the production of the "world's best" sixth-generation F-47 fighter jets would begin during his presidency. It turns out that the American president either made a mistake or wishful thinking with his usual boasting. The production of the fighter has also been entrusted to Boeing, which, in addition to many other problems, has been unable to build "Flight No. 1" for the head of state since Trump's first cadence.
