With the looming retirement of the F-15C/D Eagle, its secondary air superiority fighter, in the next decade, the Air Force has begun taking strides towards designing the F-22’s follow-on in order to maintain its combat edge over every other air force in the world. Photo credit: U.S.The F-22 Raptor is already the most lethal fighter jet ever built, severely outclassing virtually every other aircraft of a similar class fielded by the rest of the world’s air forces.īut with the advent of newer anti-aircraft defense systems, stealth-defeating tracking technologies and the entrance of countries such as China and Russia into the stealth fighter foray, the F-22 will eventually need to be replaced with something even more powerful. This model is available from AirModels – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. The service wants to develop a whole new aircraft instead of a derivative design of an aircraft already on the production line, for the sixth-generation fighter.Ĭlark added that, although the service’s objective for fielding the new fighter aircraft had been the 2030s, when the Super Hornets would begin to reach the end of their service lives, the Navy will try to speed up that timeline because the Super Hornets are likely to reach their maximum flight hours sooner than previously anticipated.Ī January 2020 report from the Congressional Budget Office estimated the US Navy could spend approximately $67 billion to replace the F/A-18E/F fleet from 2032 to 2050 and $22 billion to replace the Growlers. However the new aircraft is presumed to be the USAF’s first “sixth-generation” tactical aircraft after the fifth-gen F-22 and F-35 fighter jets.Īs we have already explained, in August James Geurts, the US Navy acquisition chief, revealed that the service has started the development of its own NGAD (previously named F/A-XX).Īctually the US Navy is moving toward the pursuit of a manned fighter aircraft that would include many of the capabilities on the F-35C Lightning II, but with updated technology and expanded range, Bryan Clark, a naval analyst and senior fellow with the Hudson Institute pointed out. 14, 2020 that any weapon made using digital concepts will have an “e-” prefix in an effort to showcase these innovative processes. He did not provide specifics on the project, except that the new aircraft was conceived using digital engineering, which allows the USAF to bypass the regular manufacturing process for parts and gives developers more flexibility to design and change blueprints. F-22A Raptor 192nd Fighter Wing, 149th Fighter Squadron, FF/04-4082 – Langley AFB, VA – 2014 It’s broken a lot of records in the doing.” This print is available in multiple sizes from – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS.
“NGAD has come so far that the full-scale flight demonstrator has already flown in the physical world. “NGAD right now is designing, assembling, testing in the digital world, exploring things that would have cost time and money to wait for physical world results,” Roper said. 15, 2020.Īccording to, the project, named Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD), defies the traditional categorization of a single platform, featuring a network of advanced fighter aircraft, sensors and weapons in a growing and unpredictable threat environment.
Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, revealed during the virtual 2020 Air, Space and Cyber conference on Sep. The US Air Force (USAF) has secretly built and flown a new fighter jet prototype that could become the service’s top combat aircraft, Dr. The project, named Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) features a network of advanced fighter aircraft, sensors and weapons in a growing and unpredictable threat environment.