foreign
on its plans to replace the f-18e Super Hornet saying the service's next Strike Fighter will
most likely be manned the jet will probably fly alongside robotic allies and remotely
crude aircraft could eventually account for 6 out of 10 planes on a carrier Flight Deck
the f-18e Super Hornet dominates the Navy's Strike Fighter Fleet made up of
Fighters that can execute both fighter and attack missions the Navy believes it needs
to replace the Super Hornet and its electronic warfare variant the ea-18g roller in the 2030s
ngad is the Navy's effort to replace the Super Hornet note it's a completely separate program
from the Air Force's own njd which recently designed tested and flew a secret to fighter
jet and will produce a completely separate plane the two aircraft will almost certainly be quite
different with the Air Force's jet more optimized for air superiority it's likely the two fighters
develop roughly within the same time period will share much of the same technology the Navy's
ngad crude fighter would be part of a family of systems a phrase popular in the Pentagon that
typically means both crude and uncrewed vehicles Harris used the term little buddy to refer to
uncrewed aircraft which he sees as augmenting crude Fighters a little buddy could act as a
flying missile carrier teaming up with the ngad fighter to boost a carrier's Airborne Firepower
the Navy is working toward a goal of having 40 percent uncrewed and sixty
percent crude aircraft and eventually flipping those numbers so drones will
make up sixty percent of the Carrier Air Wing In addition to the fighter mission
today's carriers typically go to sea with about 76 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters
during the Cold War carriers with approximately the same deck space and volume routinely went to
sea with nearly 90 aircraft a carrier could easily embark on another squadron's worth of drones or
even more than that depending on the drone's size and cost the result would be larger Carrier Air
Wings with more capability and a greater ability to accept losses and still remain functional
the Navy needs to invest heavily in drones if it wants to keep its super
carriers the cost of carrier radiation is extremely high a Gerald R Ford class
carrier costs somewhere in the area of 12 billion dollars and the 44 strike Fighters
that justify the ship's existence cost another 100 million dollars each
then there's easily another 1.5 billion dollars in support aircraft such as the e-2d Hawkeye aerial
command and control plane the upcoming mq-25 a stingray tanker mh-60 Seahawk helicopter and
the cnv22 Osprey transport the carriers escorts typically a guided missile Cruiser two or three
guided missile destroyers and a nuclear-powered attack submarine cost another 10 billion dollars
remotely crude aircraft represent the Navy's best chance of reversing skyrocketing costs
a carrier might embark on another 20 ngad combat drones boosting the number
of aircraft that can shoot missiles or drop bombs by nearly 50 percent at the same time
the Navy could replace some of the crude jets with cheaper uncrew jets in a world of
flat defense spending the future of the aircraft carrier as we know it just might depend on ngad