Generation 6 Fighter - Air Force sixth-generation fighter 'not really that far off,' Kendall says An unknown number of companies are still competing to build the sixth-generation fighter that will be the centerpiece of the Air Force's next-generation Air Dominance family of systems .
The program Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) envisions various types of drones in combination with the sixth generation fighter. (Northrop Grumman)
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LONDON: The Air Force has yet to pick a winner among the companies still vying to build the sixth-generation jet for the service, but the final choice is "not that far off," a top service leader told Breaking Defense this weekend.
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While Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall declined to say when the service will select a manufacturer for the fighter aircraft that will be the cornerstone of the next-generation Air Dominance family of systems, he offered little insight into the trajectory of the very classified program.
"It's not inevitable, but it's not that far off," Kendall said in an exclusive interview with Royal International Air Tattoo. "There's a little hint I'll give you."
The Air Force has so far confirmed three elements of the NGAD program: a sixth-generation manned fighter, the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile currently in development, and a suite of unmanned aerial vehicles — which Kendall said in "cooperation fighter plane" calls. - that will increase the manned fighter in battle.
In June, Kendall announced that the NGAD fighter had advanced to the engineering, manufacturing and development phase, prompting speculation that the Air Force had selected a prime contractor for the program. Later that month, however, Kendall said there was still competition for NGAD, raising further questions about the status of the program.
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Although Kendall declined to answer most of Breaking Defense's questions about the NGAD, he stated that the program will not have a single first position at the "systems integrator" that oversees the assembly of the family of systems, and that the air force has separate procurement efforts. for each of the elements.
"The main integrator will probably be the government, probably with the help of industry," he said. "The NGAD platform itself will have a traditional lead [contractor]."
The Air Force declined to discuss which airlines are involved in the NGAD. Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman could potentially produce a sixth-generation fighter, but it is unclear whether all three are currently participating in the ongoing competition.
At least one full-scale NGAD combat demonstrator made its inaugural flight in 2020. Air Force officials declined to provide further details about the aircraft's manufacturer or its capabilities, though they clarified that digital engineering is a critical technology that the service has enabled to develop much faster than observers expected.
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"What we did was an experimental prototype," Kendall said in June. "Basically, we had an X-plane program that was designed to de-risk some of the key technologies that we need for a production program."
Kendall said the Air Force plans to field the NGAD "by the end of the decade." It has not yet been announced how much the service will ultimately cost. Video above: an exclusive Warrior Maven interview with US Air Force Maj. gen. and Air Force Research Laboratory Commander Heather Pringle
(Washington, D.C.) The Air Force may end up producing several manned variants of the new 6th-generation Air Dominance fighter jet and a small family of utility drones as its state-of-the-art but largely secret aircraft program. in the future.
Delivery timelines and milestones are likely still in flux, but accelerated development of the new aircraft, a demonstrator of which has already taken to the air, can likely be expected.
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Described as a "family of systems," the NGAD will consist of a manned stealth fighter platform and a small number of multirole drones called Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) that will test enemy air defenses, cover high-risk areas with advanced surveillance, and deliver weapons, while the humans in the manned aircraft perform command and control.
Air Force Acquisition Executive Director Andrew Hunter said the manned NGAD platform itself is likely to appear by the end of the decade and that CCAs will appear much faster than term items. The industry has already invested heavily in its research and development and is preparing for the competition to build a new family of drones.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall says the new sixth-generation manned stealth fighter will likely control as many as five drones (CCA) simultaneously from the cockpit.
"You can think of him (Pilot) as a quarterback or a punter for that formation. And you can deploy these killers with a variety of mission systems and sensors, including any weapon....and you can use them very creatively and a very difficult create a problem for the adversary," Kendall told Warrior Maven at the Air Force Association 2022 Symposium.
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The ability of manned combat aircraft such as fifth-generation stealth fighters to control the flight path and sensor payload of multiple drones is emerging rapidly, if not already here, and the concept is to operate a paradigm-shifting next-generation stealth fighter on unmatched speeds, stealth, maneuverability and lethality that can extend and extend its combat functionality by controlling multiple drones.
Hunter explained that the NGAD program will adapt and evolve over the coming years depending on evolving requirements and changing threats.
"Will there be manned platforms in two varieties?" We definitely want to think about it. The first task is to deliver the manned platform. We will evaluate along the way as there is a phased approach to variant opportunities,” Hunter said.
As for the variants, one possibility being discussed is the prospect of a larger, longer-range variant for the Pacific that would travel long distances over miles of ocean without refueling, yet operate with speed, stealth and agility enough to prevail in a possible engagement of great powers. While the Pacific Ocean is a vast and seemingly limitless expanse of ocean, territory and islands, the European continent is much smaller, more compact and easily accessible in many countries. Also, the large amount of land in Europe means that aircraft can easily stop and refuel or refuel in flight over permitted Allied, non-combat areas. These tactical conditions describe the slightly different operational requirements necessary for a 6th generation aircraft to operate in Europe instead of the Pacific, thus the possibility of two variants. Given that the NGAD program is described as a "family of systems," it seems to make developmental sense and fall within the realm of building different variants for each theater.
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Kendall's said that the emerging next-generation variant of the Next-Generation Air Dominance system would likely control as many as five drones simultaneously, seems to suggest an operational scenario that would introduce new tactics, the scope of the mission of the stealth massively expand fighter and enable distributed, but network weapons and surveillance nodes to increase attack and reconnaissance capabilities.
Many of the details and exact configurations of this small family of manned and unmanned platforms are either unavailable for security reasons or are still heavily under development...or both. Unmanned systems being built to support 6th generation manned aircraft will likely come much closer than the operational manned variant. Of course, the requirements for the unmanned systems, called joint combat aircraft, are still a work in progress, but Air Force Acquisition Executive Director Andrew Hunter told reporters that the drones are being built to meet key operational imperatives.
"We need an aircraft that can operate in restricted airspace and ensure that we have the ability to establish freedom of maneuver." We have had successful unmanned platforms for decades. The challenge is to have a platform that can operate in restricted airspace,” Hunter said.
The unmanned aerial vehicles, or CCAs, will come in a variety of sizes and function as surveillance "nodes" as well as "attack" drones that carry out offensive missions and fire weapons.
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"We need a platform that's affordable so we can get some mass, not something too expensive that we can't lose." We create design. It should be able to assist the mission of the NGAD system and will include a weapons-carrying capability to operate with a manned aircraft,” Hunter said.
While manned NGADs are expected to be ready for operations by the end of the decade, CCAs could be "soon," Hunter said. "The industry is expanding research and development and is ready for a procurement program."
The ability to have multiple networked CCAs operating in close coordination with a manned "host" aircraft introduces new tactical capabilities, largely because they will be networked with each other as well as with the manned command and control aircraft. Controlling drones from the air will reduce latency by eliminating the need to transmit data through a ground station, simplifying time-sensitive data and significantly reducing sensor-to-shooter time. An armed forward-facing drone, for example, could autonomously identify a target, use computer processing, and allow human decision-makers to find and destroy enemy targets from a safe distance. Advanced
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