F-47 Fighter: Air Force Plans $1.06B Nellis Test Campus
The Air Force released a draft plan for a $1.057 billion F-47 campus at Nellis AFB, where the sixth-generation fighter will undergo operational testing.
The U.S. Air Force has started shopping for builders to construct the home where its next fighter will be tested for combat. On 23 October, Aviation Week reported, the service released a draft proposal for an “F-47 Future Campus” at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, a construction effort the government notice values at about $1.057 billion in total programmed military construction. The notice says that figure covers construction, contingency, design and security costs and is not the value of the agreement on offer. The plan is the clearest public sign yet of where the sixth-generation Boeing F-47 will go after it leaves the factory.
What the Air Force wants built
The draft was issued by the 772d Enterprise Sourcing Squadron with the Air Force Civil Engineer Center under a program called MACH1, short for Modernized Agile Construction Horizons. Any award would be an other transaction agreement, a faster contracting tool than a standard federal contract, using a progressive design-build model in which one team designs and builds and the fixed construction price is negotiated at about 65% design completion. The Air Force says it “strongly prefers” one team for the first projects but may pick up to four.
The first round, called the Rapid Delivery Projects, covers four facilities and their utilities:
| Facility | Size (per draft notice) |
|---|---|
| Combined operations and maintenance hangar | 116,745 sq ft |
| Reprogramming laboratory | 39,200 sq ft |
| Simulator facility | 40,903 sq ft |
| Aircraft apron with sunshades | About 1.15 million sq ft |
A later phase, which Aviation Week says would run through 2032, lists a fuel cell hangar, a low-observable corrosion control hangar for maintaining stealth coatings, a weapons load training hangar, a consolidated maintenance facility, a maintenance training facility and a dining facility. The notice states that winning the first round does not guarantee that later work.
The timeline
Industry questions on the draft are due by 4 p.m. Central time on 26 October, according to the notice. Aviation Week reports the Air Force hopes to award the agreement by February 2027, followed by design and preconstruction work through November 2027 and construction from that month to March 2031. Aviation Week describes the goal as having the site “up and running by spring 2031.”
The solicitation confirms that operational testing of the F-47, the stage where crews judge whether a new aircraft actually works in combat conditions, will take place at Nellis. The base already hosts combined developmental and operational testing of the F-15EX Eagle II. Aviation Week also notes that in August the Department of the Interior gave Versar Inc. a $1.9 million contract for an environmental impact statement for the Next Generation Air Dominance program, a notice later updated to name Nellis.
Key specs: the F-47 so far
- Builder: Boeing, awarded the engineering and manufacturing development contract on 21 March 2025.
- Role: air superiority fighter intended to replace the F-22 Raptor.
- Combat radius: more than 1,000 nautical miles, per a May 2025 Air Force fact sheet cited by CRS.
- Speed: faster than Mach 2, per the same fact sheet.
- Planned buy: more than 185 aircraft, per the same fact sheet.
- First flight target: 2028, with operational service in the early 2030s, as reported by TWZ.
- FY2027 request: $5.0 billion for development plus $1.5 billion in construction for F-47 beddowns.
*Sources: Congressional Research Service IF12805; Air Force contract announcement; Air Force FY2027 budget overview; TWZ. Most performance details remain classified.*
The money behind it
The Air Force’s fiscal 2027 request, released in April, would add $3 billion to speed up F-47 development; the service’s budget overview puts the development line at $5.0 billion and lists $1.5 billion in military construction for F-47 “new mission beddowns.” CRS reports that Congress appropriated $8.2 billion for the fighter’s technologies from fiscal 2022 through 2025, and that the July 2025 reconciliation law added $400 million to accelerate production. The fiscal 2027 figures are a request and still need congressional approval.
The 2025 contract announcement said the development phase “will produce a small number of test aircraft” and includes options for low-rate initial production. TWZ reported on 7 October that Boeing is building the first flying example. Brig. Gen. Mark Massaro, who leads the Air Force Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, told a Mitchell Institute event that “integrated test is a key component” of speeding up the program, meaning developmental and operational testers work side by side from the start.
Why it matters
Analysis, based on the sources cited in this article:
Construction contracts are less dramatic than first flights, but they are hard evidence of commitment. The Air Force is preparing to sign a design-and-construction agreement for a stealth-fighter campus years before the jet’s first planned flight, which fits the service’s own description of a “streamlined and accelerated development timeline” for the F-47. The facility list itself says something about the aircraft: a reprogramming lab for mission software, a large simulator building and a dedicated hangar for stealth-coating repair point to a jet whose combat value depends as much on software and low observability as on airframe performance.
The plan also leaves the biggest basing question open. Aviation Week reports that a new Air Force report to Congress lists the 90th and 525th Fighter Squadrons at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, with a transition mission “to be determined,” while F-22 squadrons in Virginia and Hawaii keep the Raptor; the Air Force has not announced operational F-47 bases. The fighter is meant to fly alongside Collaborative Combat Aircraft drones, and Boeing is also developing the Navy’s F/A-XX carrier fighter, so the company’s ability to run both programs on schedule remains a question worth watching.
What to watch: answers to industry questions after 26 October, the target award in February 2027, Congress’s final fiscal 2027 funding for the F-47, and any announcement of operational basing.
Sources
- Aviation Week, USAF Outlines F-47 Construction Plan For Nevada Test Base, 23 October 2026.
- SAM.gov, MACH1 AOI: F-47 Future Campus at Nellis AFB (FA8903-27-OT006), draft notice, October 2026.
- Congressional Research Service, U.S. Air Force Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) Fighter, IF12805, 22 July 2025.
- U.S. Air Force, Budget request directs record $338.8 billion to Air Force and Space Force, April 2026.
- U.S. Air Force, Air Force Awards Contract for Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) Platform, F-47, 21 March 2025.
Additional sources
- TWZ, How The Groundwork For F-47 Flight Testing Is Being Laid, 7 October 2026.
- Department of the Air Force, FY2027 Budget Overview (PDF).
- Air & Space Forces Magazine, Congress Boosts Sixth-Gen Fighters, E-7 in 2026 Spending Bill, 20 January 2026.
