The U.S. Air Force is modifying its approach to acquiring the F-47, a sixth-generation fighter jet, which will enhance the Air Force’s control over the technology and facilitate more efficient future enhancements, according to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin.

During a hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. Allvin responded to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., explaining that the Air Force’s procurement strategy for the Boeing-manufactured F-47, formerly known as Next Generation Air Dominance, contrasts sharply with the methods used for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

“The key difference now is our increased control over the [F-47] initiative moving forward,” Allvin remarked. “We’ve brought more of the process in-house. We possess a greater share of the technological base. We have developed a government reference architecture, meaning we control the mission systems. This allows external parties to participate, but we lead the development and upgrading process.”

A government reference architecture (GRA) is essentially a framework created by the government to direct a program’s design, development, production, and maintenance stages.

High-ranking Air Force officials, including former Secretary Frank Kendall, have openly expressed regret over the structure of the military’s contract with Lockheed Martin for the F-35. In a roundtable with journalists in May 2023, Kendall criticized the Pentagon for not securing rights to the F-35’s sustainment data when the initial contract was signed.

This issue arose from an older acquisition strategy called Total System Performance, which granted the contractor lifetime control over the program.

The Government Accountability Office in a report from September 2023 also pointed out the drawbacks of not securing technical data rights for the F-35, which has compromised the military’s ability to maintain the aircraft independently and delayed repairs.

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Kendall described this oversight as “acquisition malpractice,” arguing that such practices grant the contractor a continuous monopoly. He committed to avoiding this error in the NGAD program, ensuring that the Air Force would retain necessary intellectual property rights. Kendall also mentioned that the NGAD would feature a modular open system architecture, enabling easier incorporation of new suppliers and updates.

Allvin’s recent statements confirm that this revised strategy was indeed applied in the Air Force’s agreement with Boeing for the F-47. He emphasized that this would allow for software-based enhancements that do not depend on the original contractor.

“Upgrades can proceed at the pace of software development rather than hardware changes. They rely on our engineers’ ability to innovate quickly without the extra costs of dealing with the contractor,” Allvin explained.

He also highlighted that future technological improvements would be simpler to implement in the Air Force’s emerging collaborative combat aircraft, the YFQ-42 and YFQ-44, which are being developed by General Atomics and Anduril Industries, respectively.

“These platforms will all share the same mission systems architecture. This means we are not just upgrading individual platforms, but an entire system, thus maximizing the combat capability derived from taxpayer dollars,” Allvin added.

Allvin also mentioned that the lessons learned from the F-35 program are being applied to avoid similar issues with the F-47.

“We’ll have discussions about the F-35 and ensure we do not repeat those mistakes,” he stated.