The 5th Gen Club is bigger than I thought. What will using AESA Arrays as electronic weapons, aerial lasers, extended range/hyper velocity missiles and other things being worked on affect Gen 6? Could we return to a day when "the need for speed" from the '50's is in vogue again? Seems a portion of the USAF thinks so. Prompt Global Strike anyone?
The 6th Gen may be space based and lasers for weapons. 6th gen fighters may be powered by Ramjets.
ReplyDeleteRussia has also decided to develop a cheap light weight multi-role stealth fighter. Its currently acronym is LMFS and it's being developed by MiG. Rumor right now is that LMFS is only a single engine stealth variant of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG 1.44 fighter. Either way, the LMFS is supposed to be in the same class the J-31 and F-35 are in, only the Russians hope to make it cheaper than both and outperform both, most likely by leveraging technology already developed from the T-50 PAK-FA.
ReplyDeleteThe 6gen fighetrs are evolving so stealthy that nobody noticed.
ReplyDeletehttp://74fdc.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/x-47b-front.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1Wv8xQPZBQA/UhzZC6rMhzI/AAAAAAAA2LQ/wqbdYJyL6u4/s640/163474043-Advanced-Super-Hornet-Media-Brief_page21_image252.png
The 6th gen club is likely going to focus on one major design feature. IT HAS TO BE AFFORDABLE.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the point of having the latest, greatest, deadliest machine in the sky if its too expensive to build and fly (F-22) or spends so long in development it's obsolete the day it becomes operational (F-35)?
True multi-role will be out. We'll go back to seeing some more single purpose fighters, attack aircraft, and interceptors like in the 50s and 60s. The F-35 has proven that "jack-of-all-trades" aircraft are a false economy.
Dont know Doug...maybe you are right,but i belive that we will see big multi-role fighters like the F-15E and small multirole fighters like the Gripen...
DeleteThink high/low mix with FB-22/Advanced F-16/GripenNG...
Doug, what you mention exist already, at least with the USNavy and Australia
Deletewww.youtube.com/watch?v=JSK-JcK1MTc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k9AjEsML_g&feature=youtube_gdata_player
With Boeing likely be out of fighter jet business and Lockheed Martin be the sole remaining monopoly, that's a fat dream. The US must pay whatever Lockheed Martin charges for its tactical aircraft, and you bet it will be higher than the prices of the F-22 and the F-35.
DeleteThe 6th Gen in reallity is the revolution in the cooperative engadgement, when you fussion the data of multiple sensors to have a common picture of the battlefield. In that scenario not any airplane will be able to be 100% "invisible". That's why is better to invest in jammers, drones and sensors than in super expensive "invisible" planes. At least thar's what an USNavy almiral suggested.
Deletewww.youtube.com/watch?v=WumIk1MwVPM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
At one moment in the near future they are going to be trap as easy as this...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEvxlwLR9uo&feature=youtube_gdata_player
@slowman.
Deletei think the argument that Boeing will be out of the fighter game is just a dream of the overly pessimestic that are like me and don't think the F-35 is what we should be buying now. even today the Navy is working with Boeing on the basics of the 6th generation fighter.
in europe i read a story where the British are talking about the dawn of a golden age.
I trully believe the USNavy has it's own agenda with Boeing and N. Grunman. Advanced Super Hornets, Growlers, X-47B, new advanced jammers, Atflir and computers, fusión multi-ship/multi-spectral test for the 2014, extended long range weapons and decoys etc, etc.
DeleteIn the mean time L.Martin with the F35 is tryin to invent the "square-circle" as we say in my original country
@ Solomon,
DeleteWell, who's gonna buy Boeing's fighter jets past 2018? Unless Boeing wins the T-X contest in 2017, it is over for Boeing's fighter jet division as the last F-15SA rolls out in 2018 and there are no new orders, and Boeing's fighter division can't afford to keep its doors open until the F/A-XX materializes; it will go the way of Northrop and General Dynamics, both of who quit manned fighter jet business to focus on 100% unmanned drones.
You know me as a hardcore F-35 opponent, but the reality is that a Lockheed monopoly is inevitable under current circumstances unless the US is willing to do joint ventures with other countries in need of a 6th gen fighter jet to counter China.
The USNavy fleet is aeging rapidly and even if the F-35C become operational they won't come in time to replace the legacy hornets. They will have to continue the production of the Super Hornets and when the F-35 where scrapped they will continue building advanced Super Hornets and Growlers. Let's see what happens this@ 2014.
DeleteSome additions and replacement
ReplyDeleteKFX C103(That KFX C201/2/3 thing is dead) : http://military.people.com.cn/NMediaFile/2013/0816/MAIN201308161338000535165410220.jpg
F-3 24DMU : http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n1oQjWN6hfU/UrIoDq2nfpI/AAAAAAAAIwI/50LfV5uu-v8/s1600/138618988726.jpg
Saab FS2020 : http://www.planobrazil.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Future-Gripen.jpg
Of three, KFX C103 will be the first one to hit the market, due to the urgency of the ROKAF's need to replace some 200 F-4/5 jets. The F-3 took a massive hit when the Defense Ministry decided to replace first 100 F-15Js with the F-35s, meaning the F-3 will now have to replace later build F-15Js and F-2s. This is the reason for the enlarged center weapons bay, to house supersonic anti-ship missiles.
Saab FS2020 depends on securing co-funding nations. The Gripen E's unexpected success in the market place, where Gripen E is expected to be the last manned European fighter jet, makes it unlikely.
@ Slowman
ReplyDeleteA comment... FS2020 haven't existed for a few years and wasn't an aircraft per se but a goal for securing national aeronautical skills in several design areas for future air systems and also importantly transfer technology towards future upgrades of Gripen. Areas such as sensor fusion, material research and nano-tech, signature adaptation, aircraft concepts, hull design. propulsion design, autonomous operations. The target 2020 assumes technical maturity for both spill-over to Gripen and readiness for a new flight system (or sub systems). ACABs stealth radome (that got them the KFX gig) was linked to both FS2020 and the follow-up FS2025. Notice the first sentence in this photo; under Application and the last sentence under Requirements. http://i.imgur.com/xCiQED5.jpg
Also, haven't actually seen talk around Europe expecting Gripen E to be the last manned European fighter jet and realising technical and bureaucratic limitations the Swedish vision beyond Gripen is for optionally unmanned fighters (and I believe the USN will also move in that direction). Had interesting debate with the head of plans and policy about this not long ago.
We'll see about a new Saab fighter but I believe they will find opportunities for a new design with Sweden and foreign partners (Brazil, Turkey, .. ) in part due to cost/risk-reducing spill-overs from Gripen 39E, and most likely 39G-development.
Perhaps sixth generation fighters will not be air breathers at all, manned or unmanned orbital vehicles that are launched as are missiles to loiter or immediately dive from space like a re-entry warhead does and conduct it's missions from the high ground.
ReplyDeleteA vehicle such as an armed X-37 just hanging about in orbit above areas it would defend.
It's amazing how similar all the vehicles in that chart resemble each other in large and small packages.
ReplyDeleteThey best hope the IFF works or those MANPADS will go froggy.
http://news.usni.org/2013/12/26/major-work-replace-navys-super-hornet-start-2015
ReplyDelete