Air Force 6th-Generation Stealth Fighter Will Control Armed Attack Drones

Video Above: Maj. Gen. Pringle Manned-Unmanned Teaming

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington D.C.) Testing, overwhelming or jamming enemy air defenses, finding high-value targets with long-range sensing, organizing and analyzing incoming data streams, transmitting high-value target detail and even launching precision-airstrikes with missiles, rockets or EW ….are all missions which the Air Force’s emerging “loyal wingman” drones supporting its 6th-generation aircraft are expected to perform.

6th-Generation Stealth Fighter

The anticipated arrival of groups of up to five or six drones to fly in coordination with the Air Force’s emerging 6th-Generation stealth fighter is driving groups of service weapons developers and strategists to refine new concepts of operation for air attack and requirements to align with new technology. The service is developing groups of unmanned systems called Combat Collaborative Aircraft performing an increasingly widening sphere of missions in support of air dominance, air attack, surveillance and forward weapons delivery.

The Air Force’s 6th-generation stealth fighter is already airborne and likely to introduce paradigm-changing measures of speed, maneuverability, stealth, AI-enabled computing and perhaps of greatest significance, manned-unmanned teaming. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall listed a 6th-gen “family of systems” as one of the service’s key “operational imperatives,” meaning the new jet would operate in close coordination with as many as five or six drones.