by Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Breakthrough speed and stealth, an ability to control multiple attack drones from the air, next-generation sensors and targeting and unmanned mission capability … are just a few of the attributes expected to inform US Air Force & possibly Chinese 6th-Generation stealth fighter jet development.
So little is known about the mysterious yet airborne US Air Force 6th-Gen stealth fighter jet, that it may seem impossible to form any kind of comparison between what kinds of technologies it may integrate and those being built into China’s 6th-Gen aircraft.
What we do know is that both the US and China are a various stages of 6th-Generation development, and the US Next-Generation Air Dominance is already airborne and expected to both fly unmanned missions and control drones from the air. We also know, or at least have a solid idea of what the external configuration of the NGAD is to some extent, as well as the images presented by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force.
In terms of external configuration, the Chinese 6th-generation rendering looks a lot like the images of the US NGAD released by industry in recent years. Although we don’t know the actual or exact configuration of NGAD, it is certainly likely that the now airborne US Air Force 6th-generation looks like the industry images.
While specifics related to the technologies woven into the US 6th-gen are not available for security reasons, the Pentagon and senior Air Force leaders have said the aircraft will operate groups of what developers call CCAs, or Combat Collaborative Aircraft, essentially more expendable lower-cost yet highly effective drones designed to expand the mission envelope. CCAs can blanket forward areas with surveillance, test enemy air defenses and even deliver weapons as directed by a human. CCAs, senior Air Force weapons developers say, are already being developed with promising results and are expected to be produced in larger numbers before the NGAD reaches full production.
As for additional attributes woven into NGAD, they will at the moment mostly remain a topic of speculation, however there are some general areas of exploration likely to figure prominently. It is certainly not surprising that the 6th-gen aircraft is expected to be faster, more maneuverable and stealthier than any aircraft yet to exist, attributes resulting from breakthrough innovations such as new methods of propulsion, thermal management, radar absorbent coating materials and “vectoring” capability. The new aircraft is likely to be stealthier than any that has existed before.
