Boeing beats Northrop to win $20B+ Navy F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter contract
What happened
On Tuesday, September 29, the Department of War announced that the U.S. Navy selected Boeing to develop the F/A-XX, a sixth-generation carrier-based strike fighter, beating rival Northrop Grumman. The contract is valued at more than $20 billion for the full-scale development phase and covers multiple test aircraft for ground, airworthiness, systems, and weapons-integration testing. This is Boeing's second sixth-generation fighter program, following its 2025 win of the Air Force's F-47. Boeing shares rose about 2.3% in extended trading Tuesday; Northrop Grumman fell about 3.5-4.1%.
Why it matters & what’s next are part of Pro, along with the audio summary.
Start your free 14-day trialWho’s affected
- Boeing (BA): direct winner — adds $20B+ development contract to defense backlog and secures St. Louis fighter work into the 2030s
- Northrop Grumman (NOC): direct loser — shares fell ~3.5-4.1% after hours after losing one of the Pentagon's largest competitions
- Lockheed Martin (LMT): indirect — now iced out of the sixth-gen fighter market by Boeing's dual wins; the broader aerospace & defense sector is a read-through as NGAD production could eventually run into the hundreds of billions