Modernized “4-Plus-1” Air Force Strategy Massively Powers Up F-16s, F-35s & 6th-Gen

Related Video Above: F-35s to Europe

*A top Warrior Maven article – republished for viewer interest.

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

The Air Force’s arriving 6th-generation stealth fighter will replace the F-22 Raptor, the F-15 EX will bring a massive weapons load in support of air combat, the F-35 will replace hundreds of legacy 4th-generation fighters and a number of F-16s will be upgraded with new technology to absorb missions that don’t require a 5th-generation fighter.

Air Force Future Fighting Aircraft: Four-Plus-One

These developments comprise the fundamental essence of the Air Force’s plan for its Future Fighter Force, a strategy which seeks to adjust the current number of 7 different fighter fleets down to four-plus-one.

“We are sitting on seven fighter fleets and its expensive, so we are getting down to four fleets. We’ve brought on more than 300 F-35s and they are now the second largest fleet in our fighter fleet,” Lt. Gen. David Nahom, Air Force’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs, told The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in an interesting interview event.

The specifics of the four-plus-one plan include the addition of the 6th-generation aircraft, continued development of the F-35 as the cornerstone of the force, F-15EX and upgraded F-16, with the “plus one” being the A-10.