On Monday, April 20, 2026, American company Northrop Grumman unveiled on social media new renderings of its proposal in the U.S. Navy program to develop a sixth-generation carrier-based multirole aircraft, codenamed F/A-XX.
We're bringing tomorrow’s horizon into focus, faster, stronger and ready when the warfighter needs it.#SAS2026 pic.twitter.com/r0uORyR5kM
— Northrop Grumman (@northropgrumman) April 20, 2026
The same day, according to industry magazine The War Zone, citing information it had obtained from U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle, the selection of the contractor for the program, between Northrop Grumman and rival Boeing, is expected to take place this August.
It is worth adding that while both companies presented general renderings of their proposals in August last year, Northrop Grumman is now showing a 15-second video, captioned with the slogan: “Sharpening tomorrow’s horizon — faster, stronger, and ready when the warfighter needs it.”
The video shows what appears to be the same design, but supplemented with details. It is a tailless aircraft, which already appears to be a trend in designs described as sixth-generation aircraft. Its characteristic features include recessed air intakes located on the upper fuselage, as well as a broad nose and cockpit — which could suggest that it is a two-seat aircraft in a tandem arrangement, as in the Su-34, although this is unlikely. In a shot near the end of the animation, when the wings are not folded, an interesting feature can be seen: they are angled slightly upward. The footage also probably shows the open doors of a bomb bay made up of two separate sections.
Of course, it should be borne in mind that these renderings are either early or deliberately differ from reality for national security reasons, for example in the appearance of the air intakes. This is due to the fact that the U.S. Navy’s broad requirements include a range of at least 1,000 nautical miles, or 1,850 km, and a significant weapons payload.
The F/A-XX program was launched back in 2008, then under the codename NGAD, or Next Generation Air Dominance, but from the outset it was an initiative separate from the USAF program. In 2021, the U.S. Navy published its preliminary tactical and technical requirements in the Navy Aviation Vision 2030-2035 document, and the fiscal year 2024 budget allocated 1.53 billion USD for the effort. The next-generation aircraft is expected to begin entering service in the 2030s, replacing Super Hornets and their specialized EA-18G Growler variants, while complementing the F-35C.
The need was also identified to develop so-called Loyal Wingmen, the counterpart to the USAF’s CCA, or Collaborative Combat Aircraft, program: unmanned aircraft equipped with control systems using machine-learning algorithms, or artificial intelligence, that will support crewed aircraft under the MUM-T, or Manned-Unmanned Teaming, concept.
Thus, on September 5, 2025, it was disclosed that Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) had awarded contracts to five companies under the CCA program: Anduril Industries, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) received contracts of undisclosed value to develop conceptual aircraft designs, while Lockheed Martin received a contract for the design of a common control system.
