Overview
- The Air Force formally told Congress in mid‑October that it now plans to field 1,509 combat‑coded crewed fighters by 2035, a rise from prior goals that adds roughly 140–200 aircraft to earlier estimates.
- Lt. Gen. David Tabor said Tuesday at a Pentagon roundtable that the service expects about 40 percent of the fleet to be F‑35s, roughly 20 percent to be F‑22s and successor F‑47s, and the remaining 40 percent split between F‑15 variants and F‑16s.
- The F‑47, the Next Generation Air Dominance follow‑on slated for a first flight around 2028, is planned to replace the roughly 186 F‑22s one‑for‑one, while the F‑15EX offers the fastest near‑term way to add new airframes.
- Reaching the target rests on two gating factors: Congress providing the required budgets for increased buys and prime contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing being able to ramp and sustain production on schedule.
- The Air Force will field up to 500 uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft by 2032 but is counting those separately and so far does not expect them to reduce near‑term crewed‑fighter buys, though that assessment could change as CCA capabilities mature.