By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
(Washington D.C.) The Air Force’s highly secret 6th-generation stealth fighter jet is already airborne, a potentially promising development likely to usher in a new era in air-supremacy with new applications of stealth, speed, computing, autonomy and manned-unmanned teaming.
6th-Gen
Most of the details of this 6th-gen demonstrator aircraft remain elusive for security reasons, yet Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and other service leaders have been clear that it is a “family of systems” wherein manned jets will control small groups, even swarms, of mini-drones. The Air Force calls some of these unmanned systems Combat Collaborative Aircraft, essentially drones which will fly in coordination with a manned, stealthy, next-generation 6th-gen plan in support of a number of high-risk combat missions. The 6th-gen plane, called Next-Generation Air Dominance, is often viewed as a faster-stealthier, next-generation F-22.
Video Above: Air Force 6th-Gen Stealth Fighters Control Attack Drones
The collection of technologies woven into a 6th-generation aircraft are quite significant and likely things like conformal sensors, blended antennas, a new level of AI-enabled sensing and computing, manned-unmanned teaming, smart skins with sensors woven into the fuselage and a new generation of stealth properties such as coating materials, thermal heat signature management and external configuration.
Industry renderings of the 6th-generation aircraft, one of which may be the demonstrator chosen, do indeed reveal a new, sleek, advanced, stealthy body type. Images of 6th-generation planes show a fuselage with no vertical structures, giving it a B-2-esque ultra stealthy horizontal blended wing-body.
With all of these kinds of innovations informing 6th-generation aircraft, it might be quite difficult to imagine what a 7th-generation stealth fighter might look like? Will there be such a thing?
7th-Gen
Are there yet-to-be discovered “disruptive” technologies able to re-define air combat? If history is any guide, the answer is likely yes. The first thought which comes to mind is that a 7th-generation stealth fighter will be “hypersonic.” Imagine a stealth fighter jet flying more than five times the speed of sound? Could it be manned? At the moment, manned hypersonic flight seems beyond the realm of the possible given that humans would never survive the heat generated at those speeds.
However, perhaps cooling technology or protective gear will emerge such that humans will actually be able to survive hypersonic speeds? If not, a 7th-generation attack stealth fighter might be fully unmanned, as very high levels of autonomy already exist. Unmanned fighter jets can not only fully maneuver without needing human intervention, but have also out-performed manned jets in some simulated dogfights. Nevertheless, there are doubtless many elements of human cognition, emotion, intuition and other more subjective variables which mathematically-derived computer algorithms cannot replicate.
Video Above: Air Force Scientists Expand AI-Enabled Data Sharing Between Bombs “In Flight”
What would 7th-generation stealth look like? Perhaps further miniaturization of sensors, computers and weapons enable a much smaller and therefore stealthier platform to achieve the same or greater level of lethality? It may also not be too far-fetched to envision a 7th-generation stealth fighter able to operate beyond the earth’s atmosphere and conduct combat and surveillance operations in space.
Should it fly at hypersonic speeds, it seems conceivable that a 7th-generation aircraft could travel beyond the earth’s atmosphere and back on a single tank of fuel. Perhaps 7th-generation stealth fighters could potentially operate as air and space attack platforms able to destroy enemy fighters and even satellites or missiles such as ICBMs traveling beyond the earth’s atmosphere? A 7th-generation stealth fighter would of course control small fleets of drones and be armed with a new arsenal of extremely precise, ultra long-range air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons.
Maybe a 7th-generation stealth aircraft could be stealthy and fast enough to incinerate enemy ICBMs with jet-fired laser weapons? Seems realistic, given that jet-fired lasers are fast-progressing with Air Force weapons developers.
Kris Osborn is the Military Affairs Editor of 19 FortyFive and 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 ecxpert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
