CNO nominee Adm. Caudle warns F/A-XX delays could jeopardize Navy’s air superiority

Adm. Daryl Caudle, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be chief of naval operations, told lawmakers that the sea service needs to field a sixth-generation fighter jet as quickly as possible or risk losing its edge over adversaries.

The next-gen aircraft program, known as F/A-XX, has encountered funding shortfalls which are expected to slow down the initiative. The Navy delayed around $1 billion for the project in fiscal 2025 due to spending caps imposed by the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act. The Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal 2026 includes just $74 million in R&D funds for the effort — far less than the $454 million the service received in FY’25 and nearly $900 million less than the Navy had previously planned to spend in FY’26, according to budget documents.

As part of advance policy questions submitted to the nominee ahead of his confirmation hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Caudle was asked how the Navy would be able to maintain air superiority without fielding a next-gen fighter on its original timeline.

“Nothing in the Joint Force projects combat power from the sea as a Carrier Strike Group, which at the heart has a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (CVN). To maintain this striking power, the CVN must have an air wing that is comprised of the most advanced strike fighters. Therefore, the ability to maintain air superiority against peer competitors will be put at risk if the Navy is unable to field a 6th Generation strike fighter on a relevant timeline. Without a replacement for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and E/A-18G Growler, the Navy will be forced to retrofit 4th generation aircraft and increase procurement of 5th generation aircraft to attempt to compete with the new 6th generation aircraft that the threat is already flying,” Caudle wrote in his response.

Defense Department officials are especially concerned about China’s military advancements, which include developing next-gen fighter aircraft that the U.S. Navy might have to go up against someday.

“The Navy’s ongoing efforts to maintain technological superiority will ensure our ability to challenge any adversary. Deterring and denying China will require an ‘All Hands on Deck’ approach from the Joint Force including the massing of lethal fires from the sea, which comes from carrier strike groups with the latest and most capable strike fighters,” Caudle told lawmakers

“The Navy has a validated requirement for carrier-based 6th generation aircraft, and it is critical that we field that capability as quickly as possible to give our warfighters the capabilities they need to win against a myriad of emerging threats,” he wrote.

Last month, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told lawmakers that he believes the requirement for a platform like the F/A-XX is “still valid.”

“As we look at the threat picture out in the Pacific, the requirements themselves I think are still valid. I think it comes down to a question that many of the folks on the committee have talked about, and that’s the ability [for industry] to produce at a particular time. And I’ll defer to my civilian leaders on the timing and synchronization [of] that program. But we do need, you know, capability that is mobile, whether it’s F/A-XX or others, that enable us to win on the battlefield to the future,” Caine said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

However, the Pentagon is prioritizing the development of the Air Force’s sixth-gen fighter, the F-47, to the tune of planning to spend $3.5 billion on the program in fiscal 2026. DOD officials have said they’re willing to slow down the Navy program due to concerns about the ability of the defense industrial base to handle two sixth-gen fighter programs simultaneously.

Trump in March announced the award of the prime contract for the F-47 to Boeing, but the prime contractor for F/A-XX still hasn’t been selected.

Navy officials have said the F/A-XX is expected to be extra stealthy, have significantly longer range than the fighter jets that are currently in the fleet, and incorporate AI capabilities.

Caudle noted that the service also plans to develop highly autonomous drones known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs) to complement sixth-gen fighters and other Naval aviation platforms. He suggested the drones would be “multi-role capable.”

“It is too early to predict the exact mix of manned and unmanned aircraft. However, as autonomous systems demonstrate increasing capability and warfighting effectiveness, we intend to iterate to deploy the most effective combination of manned and unmanned aircraft to maximize the lethality, combat effectiveness, and range of the naval aviation combat power,” Caudle told lawmakers.

Trump nominated Caudle for the CNO role last month. In February, the president fired then-CNO Adm. Lisa Franchetti without explanation. Adm. James Kilby has been serving as acting chief of naval operations.

Caudle, who is currently serving as commander of Fleet Forces Command, wasn’t a controversial pick for the top job and his nomination is expected to be confirmed by the Senate.