The Navy is waiting for Pentagon leaders to pick a company to build the service’s sixth-generation F/A-XX fighter jet, now that Congress moved to restore funding, according to the service’s air boss.

“It's going to be a very exciting aircraft. I'm looking forward to the downselect. I'll leave it to the professional acquisition folks…but I'm looking forward to that because that sixth-generation means air superiority in that timeframe in the future, which means sea control. And as long as you have air superiority, you have sea control around the globe,” Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commander of Naval Air Forces, said today during a CSIS event.

In March, the Navy was reportedly close to picking a company to build F/A-XX, but an announcement never came, and the service ended up gutting fund

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