Trump Awards Boeing Much-Needed Win with F-47 Fighter Jet Contract

 US President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listen during an event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2025. Trump announced the award to Boeing of a major contract for the Air Force's high-tech next-generation F-47 fighter plane. (AFP)
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listen during an event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2025. Trump announced the award to Boeing of a major contract for the Air Force's high-tech next-generation F-47 fighter plane. (AFP)
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Trump Awards Boeing Much-Needed Win with F-47 Fighter Jet Contract

 US President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listen during an event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2025. Trump announced the award to Boeing of a major contract for the Air Force's high-tech next-generation F-47 fighter plane. (AFP)
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listen during an event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2025. Trump announced the award to Boeing of a major contract for the Air Force's high-tech next-generation F-47 fighter plane. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump awarded Boeing on Friday the contract to build the US Air Force's most sophisticated fighter jet yet, dubbed the F-47, handing the company a much-needed win.

The Next Generation Air Dominance program will replace Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor with a crewed aircraft built to enter combat alongside drones.

Trump, the 47th president, announced the new jet's name, the F-47.

"We've given an order for a lot. We can't tell you the price," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

"Our allies are calling constantly," Trump added, saying foreign sales could be an option. "They want to buy them also."

For Boeing, the win marks a reversal of fortune for a company that has struggled on both the commercial and defense sides of its business. It is a major boost for its St. Louis, Missouri, fighter jet production business.

The engineering and manufacturing development contract is worth more than $20 billion. The winner will eventually receive hundreds of billions of dollars in orders over the contract's multi-decade lifetime.

Shares of Boeing rose 4% after the news. The US company beat out Lockheed Martin for the deal. Lockheed's shares fell nearly 7%.

Reuters reported Boeing's victory before the official announcement.

The plane's design remains a closely held secret, but would likely include stealth, advanced sensors, and cutting-edge engines.

"Compared to the F-22, the F-47 will cost less and be more adaptable to future threats - and we will have more of the F-47s in our inventory," said Chief of Staff of the Air Force General David Allvin.

Boeing and Lockheed did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

NGAD was conceived as a "family of systems" centered around a sixth-generation fighter to counter adversaries such as China and Russia.

Allvin added the F-47 will have significantly longer range, more advanced stealth, and will be more sustainable and more easily supported than the F-22.

MAJOR WIN

Boeing's commercial operations have struggled as it attempts to get its best-selling 737 MAX jet production back up to full speed, while its defense operation has been weighed down by underperforming contracts for mid-air refueling tankers, drones and training jets.

"The win is a major boost for the company, which has struggled with cost overruns, schedule delays and execution on other DoD programs," said Roman Schweizer, an analyst at TD Cowen.

Cost overruns at the KC-46 mid-air refueling tanker program have surpassed $7 billion in recent years, while another fixed-price contract to upgrade two Air Force One planes has created a $2-billion loss for the top 5 US defense contractor.

Boeing has faced ongoing scrutiny since a series of crises including a mid-air emergency in January 2024 involving a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 missing four key bolts. In January, Boeing reported an $11.8-billion annual loss - its largest since 2020 - due to problems at its major units, along with fallout from a crippling strike that shuttered production of most of its jets.

Boeing has ceded ground to rival Airbus in the delivery race and entered the crosshairs of regulators and customers following a series of missteps. The Federal Aviation Administration in early 2024 imposed a production cap of 38 MAX planes per month.

Lockheed, which was recently eliminated from the competition to build the Navy's next-generation carrier-based stealth fighter, faces an uncertain future in the high-end fighter market after the loss.

Billionaire and presidential adviser Elon Musk has voiced skepticism about the effectiveness of crewed high-end fighters, saying cheaper drones were a better option.

While Lockheed could still protest the award to Boeing, the fact Trump announced the deal in a high-profile Oval Office press conference could reduce the possibility of a public airing of arguments against the agreement from the Bethesda, Maryland-based defense firm.



Iran FM Araghchi Arrives in Oman Ahead of Nuclear Talks with US

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of negotiations with the US, in Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of negotiations with the US, in Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
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Iran FM Araghchi Arrives in Oman Ahead of Nuclear Talks with US

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of negotiations with the US, in Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of negotiations with the US, in Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters

Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi arrived in Oman on Friday ahead of fresh nuclear talks with the United States, after both sides said progress had been made in previous rounds.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei posted on X that "Araghchi and his accompanying delegation arrived in Muscat for the third round of Iran-US talks".

Iran's Mehr news agency released a brief video showing the foreign minister disembarking from an Iranian government plane in Muscat.

Baqaei said Araghchi would be leading the delegation of diplomats and technical experts in the indirect discussions with the US side.

US President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will represent the United States in the talks.

The latest round will include expert-level talks on Iran's nuclear program, with Michael Anton, who serves as the State Department's head of policy planning, leading the technical discussions on the US side, the department said.

Iran's Tasnim news agency reported that deputy foreign ministers Kazem Gharibabadi and Majid Takht-Ravanchi will lead the Iranian technical team.

Baqaei wrote on X that Iran's delegation is "resolved to secure our nation's legitimate and lawful right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes while taking reasonable steps to demonstrate that our program is entirely peaceful".

"Termination of unlawful and inhumane sanctions in an objective and speedy manner is a priority that we seek to achieve," he added.

According to Baqaei, the dialogue will again be mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi on Saturday morning.

The meeting follows two earlier rounds of Omani-mediated negotiations in Muscat and Rome starting on April 12.

- Calling for 'goodwill' -

Since his return to office in January, Trump has reimposed sweeping sanctions under his policy of "maximum pressure" against Tehran.

In March, he sent a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei calling for talks but warning of possible military action if they failed to produce a deal.

Western countries including the United States have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons -- an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its program is for peaceful civilian purposes.

Baqaei earlier Friday said "progress in the negotiations requires the demonstration of goodwill, seriousness, and realism by the other side".

Iran will treat Saturday's talks seriously, Araghchi said in a recent interview, "and if the other party also enters seriously, there is potential for progress".

In 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from a nuclear deal signed three years earlier between Tehran and major world powers. The agreement eased sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

After Trump's pullout, Tehran complied with the agreement for a year before scaling back its compliance.

Iran currently enriches uranium up to 60 percent, far above the 3.67 percent limit in the 2015 deal but still below the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material.

In an interview published by Time Magazine on Friday, Trump said the United States will "lead the pack" in attacking Iran if nuclear talks do not lead to a new deal.

But he expressed hope that an agreement could be reached and said he would be willing to meet Khamenei.