sixth gen fighter aircraft

Sixth Gen Fighter Aircraft - While the US fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets are still coming off the production line and being deployed around the world, work has already begun on a futuristic sixth-generation fighter, an aircraft that has increased stealth, drones. Companions, enhanced artificial intelligence, and even the ability to heal yourself when damaged.

Welcome back to Left of Boom. I'm your host, Editorial Director Hope Hodge Seck. Late last year, a senior Air Force official acknowledged that the service had secretly built and flown a prototype for a future fighter jet. Although the United States continues to produce its flagship fifth-generation fighter, the F-35, there is speculation about what's next. At least a dozen countries are now in a phase of work to develop a sixth-generation fighter, although experts continue to debate what exactly "sixth generation" means. A few things seem clear: the airplane of the future will be smarter and more assisted by drones, and will still have a pilot in the cockpit. To give us more information about the future of combat warfare. We are joined by Richard Aboulafia, Teal Group VP of Research. He is one of the leading voices on aviation and his columns appear regularly in Aviation Week and Forbes.com. Richard Aboulafia, welcome to the show.

Sixth Gen Fighter Aircraft

So, let's start with a very basic question. I think many people have heard of fourth, fifth and now sixth generation fighter jets. Can you explain what are the defining characteristics of the sixth generation fighter? And also what are the main features of previous advanced generations?

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Well, I'll let you know when we get there. On the right. I think it's, you know, we loosely define generations of fighter jets designed over the years. And, you know, there's so many, I guess, span breaks, if you will, between the generations, and the first generation wasn't even supersonic at the end of the day, you know, so look at what's come in terms of key enablers and technology over the years. Whether it's precision radars capable of firing beyond the range of vision, air-to-air missiles, better electronic warfare systems, you know, radars, graduates of electronically scanned aerial antennas, there have been so many. The fifth generation, you know, can be broadly characterized as a certain degree of stealth, maybe not all aspects of stealth, but low observability, integrated sensor fusion, which allows pilots to get a much better idea of ​​what is going on around him on the battlefield. Of course, fully integrated EW systems that respond to a range of threats. And various other enablers, these are the keys. It's kind of, almost a way to define the market to some extent. And as a consequence, it is a kind of curiosity, the only fifth generation production aircraft were F 22 and F-35. Everything else was fourth generation. But with a number of building blocks and subsystems associated with the fifth generation, it will be called Generation 4.5, which of course blurs the lines even more.

If I were Michael Scott and I was like, "Tell me like I'm five," then you have to give a 4, 5, 6 sentence, how would you sum it up?

There were trenches of technology that were introduced, and the fifth is mostly characterized by low observability. And by having a lot of data, a lot of internal and external sensors, all feeding data to the pilot to give you a very clear battlefield picture of the threat environment.

Understood. That is useful. Thank you. So I think I've seen 12 countries have now announced that they are working on the development of a sixth generation fighter, including some of our favorite high-powered competition rivals and friends. Which nations do you think are the most advanced in development right now? And how is the progress they are making?

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Well, you know, there are big questions about what constitutes the sixth generation. And first you have to start with the fifth generation as the main and basic building block. This of course means that the US will have this huge advantage, as it is the only country that has actually built a true fifth generation aircraft. Now what is Gen 6 different than anything in Gen 5 that people didn't build because they only built Gen 4 or Gen 4.5? In addition, probably one of the biggest enablers is just hyper-connectivity, just everything being connected. There are systems, other nodes on the battlefield, other external sensors on board, all connected at hyper-fast speeds, that will be a key part. Another thing that turns out to be highly desirable is basically a greater degree of human-machine teamwork. And that means Loyal Wingman type systems. And the pilot's ability to control the connected systems around him. That means Skyborg, Loyal Wingman or whatever Australian Air Power Team, one of the systems that will be set up. And that will be a key enabling technology because it also uses artificial intelligence. You know, a pilot can't do much with a bunch of systems connected. Unless, of course, these hydraulic systems get a level of wartime autonomy. So artificial intelligence will be key there. A key aspect of Gen 6 could be a way to limit the main plan of 5. The F-35 in terms of sensor fusion was absolutely brilliant. In terms of stealth, a pretty impressive performance, relative to the mission. But as an aircraft, somewhat disappointing compared to the F-22. The joke was that the F-22 is an awesome aircraft looking for a good equipment package for the mission. And the F-35 is an amazing equipment package for missions in search of a good air vehicle. You know, so if you fail the traditional metrics of time to climb, speed, payload, range, all those other things with the fifth generation mission team, maybe the sixth generation really depends on your definition.

That is interesting. Well, there's a lot to unpack. So I'll take it piece by piece, but let's talk about stealth. First of all, there are many misunderstandings about what is stealth and what is not, especially regarding the F=35. and what stealth features could we see on a 6th generation platform?

Yeah, and there's been a lot of misunderstanding about stealth, obviously. For a large majority of the public, it is considered a Romulan cloaking device, including Donald Trump's legendary moment when he says that stealth means you can't see a big moment in space-political relations. It really just means you want to be seen second. That's what drives it. And of course, the traditional pattern of air-to-air combat means that frontal stealth is the most important thing for a fighter. You can use your fighter to invade enemy airspace for a strike mission, in which case, all-round stealth would be nice, but it's not the priority, right, the priority is seen second, so you get your first shot and can kill the other person before they kill you. Now, when it comes to stealthy penetration, as for example, on the B-21, the follow-up to the B-2 bomber, stealth is much more important in all aspects, because this is not an aircraft that shoots at other aircraft. That's a plane that penetrates the airspace, so you know, take out some high-value targets. But with fighters, stealth, low observability. That is more frontal, and it means being seen second, and it can manifest itself in terms of the shape of the fuselage, it can manifest itself in terms of emissions. You know, there are many different metrics that we use to measure stealth.

You mentioned the Loyal Wingman, what is the main idea behind that concept? And in the future we imagine, well, does every manned fighter have an unmanned companion, like an R2-D2?

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Well, you know, it's easy to exaggerate the rate at which wacky and awesome new technologies are developed, right? History tells us that you know, oh, five to ten years from now, everything will be different. Probably this kind of technology will be a 2040 story, maybe even a 2050 one. But the potential is very impressive. And it's exactly what it sounds like, you know, having the ability to have drones that also shoot and spot and everything else that works with you. And of course, this greatly corrects the quantitative disadvantage in some theaters. Read the Pacific, right? You know, I think obviously deployability is a big issue, you can only have a few aircraft carriers and a few air bases. And if you are in a conflict with a similar or close opponent, and that is your geographical territory, you better have the ability to do

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