Is the US Navy's new fighter jet threatened by a funding dispute?

The US Navy and Congress are battling with the Trump administration to keep moving forward with a contract award to build the navy's next-generation fighter jet, according three people with knowledge of the matter.

At the heart of the conflict is the F/A-XX program, intended to replace the navy's aging Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fleet with a new carrier-based stealth fighter to be fielded in the 2030s.

The navy had been expected to announce a winner as early as March in a deal that could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars to the winner over its lifetime, but a funding dispute threatens to derail that timeline.

While the navy wants to move forward with awarding a contract, some Pentagon officials are seeking to delay the program by up to three years, the people said, citing concerns about engineering and production capacity.