NGAD could be a game-changer and a fighter jet Russia and China would have a hard time
competing against – An awfully lame-sounding official report out of the U.S. Air Force
last year has come accompanied by brand new concept art of the Air Force’s next air
superiority fighter, which is being developed under the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD)
program.
This new fighter is expected to fill the air superiority role currently occupied by America’s
highly capable 4th generation F-15, as well as the advanced, but increasingly rare, F-22
Raptor.
Last September, the U.S. Air Force shocked the aviation world when they announced that
they not only had a design in mind for their Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter,
they’d already built a prototype and flown it.
While many other details about what is expected to be among–if not the–first 6th generation
fighter remain sparse, aviation journalists and pundits have largely come to assume that
the prototype that was tested likely didn’t actually represent a mature aircraft design.
It seems likely instead that an aircraft intended to serve as a technology demonstrator for
different systems intended for the next generation jet is what actually took to the sky last
summer.
Despite the likelihood that the Air Force doesn’t yet know what the NGAD fighter will
really look like, there can still be some worthwhile information to glean from official
artists’ renderings and their accompanying documentation.
Last year, coinciding with the Air Force’s NGAD test flight announcement, the Air Force
released a graphic for its 73rd birthday depicting an unusual triangular aircraft that looks
nothing like any operational fighter in today’s force.
To be fair, it’s entirely feasible that this concept art was influenced by previous
concept art for 6th generation fighters released by firms like Lockheed Martin, but some still
wondered if the timing of the NGAD announcement and artwork were intentional.
A few months back, the Air Force released its biennial Acquisition report covering fiscal
years 2019 and 20.
While not exactly the sexiest fare to come out of the branch responsible for the world’s
most potent technological advances of recent decades, the report outlines the Air Force’s
60+ ongoing acquisition programs–tech the Air Force hopes will allow it to maintain
its edge over gaining adversaries in China and Russia in the years to come.
While both the F-35 and F-22 have fairly traditional tail sections, despite their stylized stealth-friendly
edges, there is precedent for a tailless stealth fighter.
Northrop Grumman, the firm behind the B-2 Spirit and forthcoming B-21 Raider, had a
fighter competing against Lockheed Martin for the last air superiority fighter contract
that ultimately ended up going to Lockheed’s F-22.
That aircraft dubbed the YF-23 Black Widow II, adopted a nearly-tailless design as well.
The YF-23 performed extremely well in the competition, even edging the Raptor out in
places like stealth and range.
To this day, some contend that the YF-23 would have been the superior fighter.
Northrop Grumman is already working on the Air Force’s next stealth bomber, the B-21
Raider, and would likely pursue an opportunity to compete for the NGAD contract with an updated
but similar design.
Would this explain the subtle similarities in both NGAD artists’ renderings?
Meh, probably not–but it could suggest that whoever is building America’s next stealth
fighter is leaning toward a design that also forgoes a prominent tail.
Zooming in on the image doesn’t offer much in the way of additional details.
Three air-to-air missiles are shown off to the left, suggesting the NGAD fighter will
carry its weapons internally, which is practically a requirement for minimizing the fighter’s
radar return.
Below that, to the rear of the aircraft, a device with the caption “constant competition”
is likely meant to indicate electronic warfare countermeasures.
To the right of the fighter are three diagrams showing the jet engines in the aircraft that
have the phrase “digital experimentation” accompanying them.
This is likely a nod to the Air Force’s recent shift toward leveraging more digital
testing than ever before for its aircraft.
Finally, a second aircraft diagram can be seen just behind the fighter, which may simply
be similar to the other repetitive designs seemingly showing a progression of technology,
but could also represent the Air Force’s repeated statements suggesting the NGAD program
won’t produce one fighter, but rather a whole family of systems.
The 2019/2020 Acquisition report also offers a brief summary of the NGAD program, what
it intends to do, and why it’s progressing differently than previous “monolithic”
fighter programs like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Despite widely being considered the most capable tactical aircraft on the planet, the F-35
has also suffered from repeated setbacks and budget-busting issues that have earned it
a reputation as the very pinnacle of bad acquisition practices.“Next
Generation Air Dominance is a family of capabilities that enable Air Superiority in the most challenging
operational environments by enforcing the development of pillars of digital engineering,
agile software development, and open architectures,” the report reads.
It goes on to point out that the aircraft born of the NGAD program will be meant to
operate alongside previous stealth aircraft like the aforementioned F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter and the NGAD’s direct precursor, the F-22 Raptor.
That clarification is important, due to recent statements by Air Force officials that would
seem to undermine the F-35 program’s supremacy in the Air Force’s priority list.
“Designed to complement the F-35, F-22, and partner forces in the Air Superiority
role, Next Generation Air Dominance is an advanced aircraft program for the development
of penetrating counter-air platforms with multi-domain situational awareness, agile
resilient communications, and an integrated family of capabilities.”