By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
It’s a race where the stakes couldn’t be higher – who will be the first country to build a sixth-generation fighter jet, the US or China?
Two reports in the last couple of weeks are giving insight into just how far China has come along.
Writing in The Diplomat, the Asia-Pacific current affairs magazine, longtime Chinese military observer Rick Joe says it’s generally accepted that demonstrator test beds have been flown and that some form of the plane is expected to emerge this decade. Joe writes that one of the likely configurations of the plane would be a tail-less flying wing/flying arrowhead airframe.
Gen. John Murray – Former Army Futures Command Commander
Meanwhile, a Chinese test pilot has been quoted as saying the sixth generation warplane is expected to make its debut soon.
Li Gang, the test pilot in the maiden flight of the J-20 stealth fighter, spoke to China Central TV two weeks ago. “As the technology of our country’s aviation industry continues to develop, the next generation will definitely come out soon,” he said.
Western observers have pieced together a rudimentary idea of what China’s next-gen plane will be like, based in part on images offered by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. A rendering shows a horizontal blended wing-body aircraft design without any tails, fins or protruding vertical structures – not too different from what is seen in images of potential US next-gen fighters that have been released by industry in recent years.
Joe, the veteran China military watcher, writes that the plane is almost certain to use new technologies in engines, sensors, computing and networking. He also says the fighter is likely to operate alongside future unmanned combat aerial vehicles or collaborative combat aircraft – again, similar to what the US Air Force is planning for its sixth generation jet.
The planes that the US and China are building are expected to be supersonic, more stealthy and semi-autonomous. They’ll use AI-driven computing that can analyze and transmit targeting data across huge areas in milliseconds.
In addition to having an armada of drones nearby, the planes will have be armed with hypersonic missiles and precision laser weapons.
A Chinese newspaper also described how “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.”
That sounds similar to the F-35’s “sensor fusion” in which data from cameras, electro-optical targeting, navigational details, warning systems and variables such as speed, altitude and angle of approach are analyzed and presented to pilots on a single screen.
It’s widely believed the US will be the first to operate a sixth generation fighter. In 2022, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said he expected that to happen by the end of the decade. Demonstrator aircraft have already been in flight and a contract could be awarded within a year to officially begin development.
Still, it’s a race with Beijing. Two years ago, the then-commander of Air Combat Command, General Mark Kelly, said at a roundtable with reporters that China “is not having a debate over the relevance of sixth-gen air dominance. And I can also tell you they’re on track.”
