Veteran’s Corner

Tom Krabbenhoft

Recently it was announced a NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance) fighter will be built. Boeing will build it; Lockheed Martin was in a close second. Northrop Grumman pulled out of the competition a few years ago. The latter are concentrated to building the next generation Bomber B-21. Both Boeing and Lockheed Martin have had flying models for several years.
It will be the sixth generation fighter.
The First generation:
1943-1952 high subsonic aircraft, machine guns. F-80, ME-262.

Second generation:
1953-1960 F-86, MIG-15, transonic, air to air missiles, radar.

Third generation:
1960-1970 early supersonic and supersonic, air to air missiles, radar. Multi role fighter, attack, bomber aircraft came into their own in this time frame. F-4, MIG-23, MIG-21, F-104, Mirage 1 and 3.

Fourth generation:
1971-2000 high supersonic, multi role, advanced avionics and limited stealth. FA-18, Eurofighter, SU-30, MIG-29, J-10.

Fifth generation:
2000-present, advanced integrated avionics, full stealth, F-22, F-35, Mig-35, SU-35.
The sixth generation of fighters looks and performs on the level of Star Wars stuff. It will be completely stealth, will have an array of ECW (Electronic Counter Warfare), Ariel Refueling, a wide variety of weapons, longer range than the F-22, networking and battle management systems, plus advanced propulsion technology.
Allegedly the aircraft can be built smaller or larger versions depending on the role.
The one technology that will really set this apart from other aircraft is its new systems. Skyborg is a new concept of aerial warfare. Networked “loyal wingman” is one of the focal points. Essentially it’s an unmanned drone or drones that would follow the manned fighter into hostile environments. These could be programmed to defend the fighter, attack ground targets and generally project total dominance. The drones can be controlled or change of mission while flying all controlled by the manned fighter.
This really gets us more bang for the buck and put less lives in danger.
Planners are implementing a Combat Power Campaign Concept Layered Effects. This establishes a layered zone of permissive, contested and highly contested airspace. One of the tactics is drones rushing into the highly contested zones. There they would releases swarm after swarm of smaller drones which would wreak havoc and confuse the enemy. It would enable the fighter with remaining drones to enter highly contested airspace with reduced risks. All this will happen with the next decade.

These are certainly times where we will see advancement in warfare we have only imagined.