by Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Breakthrough speed and stealth, an ability to control multiple attack drones from the air, next-generation sensors and targeting and unmanned mission capability … are just a few of the attributes expected to inform US Air Force & possibly Chinese 6th-Generation stealth fighter jet development.
So little is known about the mysterious yet airborne US Air Force 6th-Gen stealth fighter jet, that it may seem impossible to form any kind of comparison between what kinds of technologies it may integrate and those being built into China’s 6th-Gen aircraft.
What we do know is that both the US and China are a various stages of 6th-Generation development, and the US Next-Generation Air Dominance is already airborne and expected to both fly unmanned missions and control drones from the air. We also know, or at least have a solid idea of what the external configuration of the NGAD is to some extent, as well as the images presented by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force.
In terms of external configuration, the Chinese 6th-generation rendering looks a lot like the images of the US NGAD released by industry in recent years. Although we don’t know the actual or exact configuration of NGAD, it is certainly likely that the now airborne US Air Force 6th-generation looks like the industry images.
While specifics related to the technologies woven into the US 6th-gen are not available for security reasons, the Pentagon and senior Air Force leaders have said the aircraft will operate groups of what developers call CCAs, or Combat Collaborative Aircraft, essentially more expendable lower-cost yet highly effective drones designed to expand the mission envelope. CCAs can blanket forward areas with surveillance, test enemy air defenses and even deliver weapons as directed by a human. CCAs, senior Air Force weapons developers say, are already being developed with promising results and are expected to be produced in larger numbers before the NGAD reaches full production.
As for additional attributes woven into NGAD, they will at the moment mostly remain a topic of speculation, however there are some general areas of exploration likely to figure prominently. It is certainly not surprising that the 6th-gen aircraft is expected to be faster, more maneuverable and stealthier than any aircraft yet to exist, attributes resulting from breakthrough innovations such as new methods of propulsion, thermal management, radar absorbent coating materials and “vectoring” capability. The new aircraft is likely to be stealthier than any that has existed before.
The Chinese and US images show a horizontal blended wing-body aircraft design without any tails, fins or protruding vertical structures,
Both the US and China likely envision a stealthy, supersonic, semi-autonomous 6th-gen fighter able to maneuver undetected through heavily armed enemy air space, evade radar detection to …. jam the adversaries command and control systems with EW weapons and gather, analyze and transmit targeting data across huge areas of terrain in milliseconds using AI-empowered computing. The aircraft will also launch and operate groups of nearby minidrones, fire air-launched hypersonic missiles and then… incinerate enemy aircraft with fighter-jet fired precision laser weapons … all while flying too quickly at hypersonic speed and too stealthily to be targeted.
Former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown has said there may indeed be two separate variants of the sixth-generation aircraft, perhaps one meant for the Pacific and another for Europe. A variant for the Pacific, for instance, might be larger, and thus able to hold more fuel for longer missions across the expansive Pacific region.
A European NGAD would likely not need as much refueling. There might also be a carrier-launched Navy variant that differs from the platform chosen by the Air Force. Essentially, there might be several opportunities for different major contractors to participate, even if only one vendor is chosen to build the Air Force NGAD
Chinese 6th-Gen aircraft
Very little is known about the Chinese 6th-generation aircraft, although a Chinese government-backed newspaper describes its progress thus far, and refers to its blended wing-body design.
Tailless, finless aircraft designs as a “blended wing-body design” are intended to provide “higher lift, longer range and lower fuel consumption,” yet the largest advantage associated with the design is likely in its stealth capabilities. Vertical structures such as tails and fins do of course greatly help increase speed, maneuverability and an ability to vector, all with intent to reduce any radar return signature available to enemy air defenses.
At the same time, protruding or vertical structures such as fins or tails, as well as contours of weapons hanging from external pylons or weapons pods, offer more shapes and structures detectable to electromagnetic pings from enemy radar which are then able to send a return signal or rendering by “bouncing” off of the shapes. Sharp edges and tails, for example, are more detectable to enemy radar than an entirely smooth aircraft, such as the B-2, would be. This is why stealth fighters such as the F-35 fly with an internal weapons pod to create a “smooth” exterior without weapons pylons likely to generate a return radar signature to enemy air defenses.
‘The Chinese paper cites some of the engineering challenges associated with “thrust-vectoring” when it comes to an aircraft not having vertical tails.
“Without vertical tails, the new aircraft will lose out on maneuverability if it does not use other designs or technologies to compensate, like thrust vectoring control-capable engines and split brake rudders, or other innovative approaches,” the Chinese paper quotes military analysts stating.
The emphasis of technologies engineered to provide pilots with “easy to understand” warzone intelligence aligns almost exactly with the often-discussed F-35 “sensor fusion.” In an F-35, data from 360-degree cameras, long-range electro-optical targeting, navigational details, threat warning systems and other variables such as speed, altitude and angle of approach, are all compiled, distilled, analyzed, integrated and presented to pilots on a single screen.
This kind of technical phenomenon is closely paralleled by the Chinese vision for its new generation fighter. For instance, the paper describes how, “in an integrated system, the aircraft should be able to form a network, draw real-time integrated situational images, create multiple attack routes, and transmit target information across mission areas in real time.”
At the same time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is figuring prominently when it comes to early conceptual work and prototyping pertinent to U.S. sixth-generation stealth fighter work. Perhaps even more data, including electronic warfare, space, radar warning receivers, cyber and as-of-yet- unknown types of indicators will increasingly be incorporated into onboard AI systems. Advanced algorithms can quickly perform analytics upon a vast array of incoming information, bounce it off a seemingly limitl
ess database and make near real-time decisions, computations and analyses. Improving the speed of decision-making and providing clarity for pilots are often referred to as “easing the cognitive burden.” These are the fundamental tenets of AI-empowered programs, therefore explaining the sought-after emphasis for a new generation of Chinese stealth fighters.
US vs Chinese 6th-Generation Aircraft – Which is Superior? There is simply not enough available or clear information, or performance record to make any kind of an educated assessment of whether the Chinese or US aircraft is superior. However, the superior aircraft would of course not only be the stealthier, faster, more maneuverable one but the one with the most advanced high-fidelity sensors, high-speed AI-enabled computing and targeting technology. Should any new 6th-generation aircraft have an ability to “see” and “destroy” the other at safe standoff ranges, much like the F-35 can when fighting 4th-gen aircraft, then it would be likely to prevail. Mission systems, computing, sensing and targeting technologies are likely to determine the better aircraft to an equal or greater extent than stealth characteristics.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University
