Overseas, the Air Force is requesting $1.5 billion in 2022 to support its airborne-dominant sixth-generation stealth fighter jet program Airborne Next Generation, a massive jump from last year that signals growing enthusiasm and ambitious plans. for the new platform, while there are few to no details on the aircraft is likely to be available for safety reasons. The $623 million budget increase over last year could offer a window into the program if the aircraft is already flying and there are already budget increases coming quickly in a budget year that is difficult Come on, there may be reason to suppose that the service has extremely ambitious plans for the aircraft.
Much can be learned from the initial demonstration flights that may be cementing key concepts about how new technological paradigms can inform fighter stealth attack. It would not be at all surprising if more demonstrators were built and flown in the near future and perhaps the program could even push for more than one variant or several airframe options. Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Brown has already indicated that there may be two variants of the aircraft: a larger next-generation air domain for the
Pacific capable of carrying more fuel, extending range and improving endurance across the sea. extension and a smaller and potentially more maneuverable European variant that does not face the same geographical barriers that are known to exist in the Pacific Theater, perhaps some of the initial thinking centers on the possibility that a sixth generation fleet could be quite large. , something that could indicate that weapons developers and futurists want to avoid the mistake that was made years ago when the F-22 Raptor program was abruptly phased out.
The sixth generation aircraft brings some interesting possibilities to mind, what if a single FT aircraft were able to operate with speed maneuverability and air supremacy capability superior to an F-22 while incorporating an AI enabled sensor suite? , surveillance and reconnaissance capability, and advanced computing superior to an F-35 could not only combine or integrate the best attributes of each of these fifth-generation aircraft, but perhaps could bring
groundbreaking new levels of performance capable of far surpassing 5th generation capability, above all, the highest development priority for 6th generation engineers is probably related to making something upgradable, the goal is probably related to designing a technical infrastructure such that the aircraft can quickly accommodate new weapons sensors and software updates to improve performance
