Pentagon Envisions Hypersonic, AI-Enabled, Space-Flying 7th-Gen Stealth Fighter

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

Envision a hypersonic, AI-enabled, space-traveling, laser firing manned-unmanned stealthy fighter platform which breaks and upends current air-war paradigms … is it too early to think 7th-gen aircraft? 

Someone at the Pentagon is likely working on this, as the pace of breakthrough innovations continues to be somewhat staggering. Now that the 6th-gen has already taken to the skies, some are likely inclined to think about potential innovations to emerge as operational ten years from now … and how they might inspire a 7th-generation stealth fighter design. 

Certainly the unknown invites speculation and inspires potentially limitless imagination, yet there is already enough work going on in the areas of hypersonics, space, sensing and AI to at least conceptualize about how these may inform future fighters. 

Seventh-Generation Stealth Fighter – Thinking About the Future of the U.S. Air Force: The U.S. Air Force’s highly secret sixth-generation stealth fighter jet is already airborne, a development with the promise to usher in a new era in air supremacy.

Most of the details of the sixth-generation demonstrator aircraft remain elusive for security reasons, but Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and other service leaders have been clear in characterizing it as a “family of systems.” Manned jets will control small groups, even swarms, of mini-drones.

The Air Force calls some of these unmanned systems Collaborative Combat Aircraft, and they are essentially drones that will fly in coordination with a manned, stealthy, next-generation plane in support of high-risk combat missions.

The sixth-generation fighter-jet initiative, called Next Generation Air Dominance, is often envisioned as a faster, stealthier F-22. But the collection of technologies woven into a sixth-generation aircraft will be quite significant. They will likely include things like conformal sensors, blended antennas, a new level of AI-enabled sensing and computing, manned-unmanned teaming, and smart skins with sensors woven into the fuselage. They will probably also carry a new generation of stealth properties such as coating materials, thermal heat signature management, and a new external configuration.