Boeing’s unmatched upgrades for the F-15EX clash with Northrop’s legacy of supersonic agility as the defense titans battle to engineer the Navy’s next carrier-launched stealth fighter.
By Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven
By any estimation, the race to build the Navy’s F/A-XX 6th-generation carrier launched stealth jet is destined to be an intense, carefully analyzed competition, as both Boeing and Northrop Grumman bring strong, unique advantages as potential builders of the new plane.
The long-term success of the F/A-18, enabled by countless impressive and impactful upgrades, indicates that Boeing is adept at sustaining, upgrading and improving air-attack platforms for decades beyond their anticipated service life. The performance parameters of the highly sought after F-15EX, coupled with the speed and combat record of the F-15E, position Boeing as a clear forerunner in the realm of fighter-jet design, construction and maintenance. Computing, radar, sensing and weapons upgrades to the F-15E and 4th-Gen “plus” F-15EX suggests Boeing has the engineering expertise to design high-speed, maneuverable and well-armed air fighter platforms. These attributes would doubtless serve Boeing quite well when it comes to meeting the speed, agility and computing requirements for the F/A-XX. The upgraded F-15E and F-15EX both operate with a new generation of computing called the Advanced Display Core Processor II said to be capable of processing 87 billion functions per second, and the F-15E’s Mach 2.25 speed places it among the fastest to ever exist.
High-Speed Tomcat
Northrop, however, is well known for pure speed as well, given the performance, longevity and dog-fighting prowess associated with its F-14 Tomcat. While both Boeing and Northrop have decades of expertise building and maintaining maritime, carrier-launched fighter jets with the F/A-18 and F-14, the Tomcat has over the years come to be known as the faster and more agile of the two. The F/A-18 has been credited with an ability to use its combat capability as well as its “sensing” capacity to “detect” threats from beyond a ship’s radar horizon; the Super Hornet became known as an aerial quarterback during years of air-attacks against ISIS years ago. One of the critical F/A-18 upgrades has been the integration of InfraRed Search and Track, a “sensing” and “targeting” technology built to function in an EW-threat environment with greater range, accuracy and security.
Due to its experience with the tandem-seat ultra dogfighting F-14 Tomcat, Northrop Grumman arguably has all the same capabilities as Boeing when it comes to engineering an ultra high-speed, agile air combat platform. Northrop’s design approach, however, is fortified by a decades-long, paradigm-changing expertise in the realm of stealth. Through generations of work on stealth technologies with the B-2 and now B-21, Northrop operates with decades of advanced expertise in the realm of thermal management, radar absorbing composite materials, low-radar-signature designs and internal weapons bays – all things of critical importance to a stealth fighter jet.
Stealth & Speed
Therefore, Northrop is arguably in position to achieve an optimal blend of attributes combining bomber-like broadband stealth with fighter-jet speed, agility and dog-fighting skill. The B-21, for example, is said to be the stealthiest bomber ever to exist, yet most of its technical properties are not publicly available for obvious reasons. Sure enough the brief “glimpses” of Northrop’s F/A-XX offering shown in a short video indicate that their jet does indeed combine fully horizontal blended wing-body stealth configuration with what appears to be an ultra high-speed, maneuverable fighter jet.
Added to this equation is the reality that, as maker of the F-14 TomCat, Northrop is no stranger to speed. A lesser known reality about the F-14 is its F-22-like Mach 2.2 speed, something which has inspired some observers to suggest that perhaps the Tomcat was retired too soon. The F-14 was also famous for its dog-fighting prowess as well, so it's conceivable that Northrop could bring fighter-jet air-combat expertise to the equation in support of its world-leading abilities designing stealth.
Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 1945. Osborn is also President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University