F-47 rendering
The U.S. Air Force is looking to move quickly to build the Boeing F-47’s operational test base at Nellis AFB, Nevada, targeting a phased production approach to have the site up and running by spring 2031.
The service on Oct. 23 released a draft proposal for the “F-47 Future Campus” at Nellis, which will be a $1.057 billion construction project for the new fighter. The progressive design build approach aims to stand up the most critical parts of the site first.
Under the draft solicitation, the Air Force hopes to award a so-called other transaction agreement to one to four vendors by February 2027. This would kick off a design preconstruction phase through that November, and rapid construction to start that month and end in March 2031.
This phase includes a 116,745 ft.2 operations and maintenance hangar, a 39,200 ft.2 reprogramming lab, a 40,903 ft.2 simulator facility and a 1.154 million ft.2 apron with sunshades, all on the base’s east side.
A subsequent phase, to run through 2032, includes a fuel cell hangar, a low observable corrosion control hangar, a weapons load training hangar, a consolidated maintenance facility, a maintenance training facility and a dining facility.
The solicitation confirms operational test for the F-47 will be at the Nevada base, which also hosts the combined developmental and operational test of the Boeing F-15EX. In August, the Department of the Interior awarded Versar Inc. a $1.9 million contract to develop an environmental impact statement for the Next Generation Air Dominance Program—a contract notice that has since been updated to specify the site is Nellis.
While Nellis is the site of test, the Air Force has not specified how it will operationally base the aircraft. However, there appears to be hints in a newly produced report to Congress on the Air Force’s fighter fleet through 2035. A section of the report outlines the service’s planned missions for its active-duty fighter squadrons.
While the F-47 is expected to replace the current F-22 fleet, only two of the squadrons are specified to transition within the time frame. The report says both the 90th Fighter Squadron and the 525th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, have a transition mission to be determined. The Air Force’s other F-22 squadrons at JB Langley-Eustis, Virginia, and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, will keep the F-22 mission, the report says.
The Air Force in announcing the F-47 award to Boeing last year said it expects the aircraft to begin flying by the end of President Donald Trump’s current term and start operations in the 2030s.
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