Summary
- The future of NGAD’s human-controlled fighter will be decided in 2024.
- NGAD is a “family of systems” including the Collaborative Combat Aircarft (CCA).
- NGAD is not a F-22 replacement due to cost but aims to surpass rivals’ capabilities.
The future of the Next Generation Air Dominance or NGAD’s human-controlled fighter will likely be decided in 2024, according to Air Combat Commander leader General Kenneth Wilsbach at a recent Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Aerospace Nation question and answer period. Although not mentioned by General Wilsbach, the sixth generation human-controlled fighter jet will be built by a contractor team led by Lockheed Martin or Boeing – both of whom were on the F-22 Raptor team.
NGAD is a “family of systems”
General Wilsbach stated that NGAD stood for “a family of systems” for Next Generation Air Dominance. NGAD includes the Collaborative Combat Aircraft or CCA that is the remotely controlled drone and the new human controlled fighter jet. For the purposes of this discussed an aircraft with a human inside is considered human controlled – and human vs. manned out of respect for the world’s lady flighter pilots.
With that, as General Wilsbach explained to the Mitchell Institute audience, he’s received legal counsel not to talk too much about NGAD during source selection to prevent a contract complaint but did share:
“The one thing that I will say on it, though, is everybody wants to talk about NGAD as a jet. It’s not a jet. It’s a family of systems. … I just want everybody to be clear that it’s a family of systems.”
General Wilsbach went on to explain that work is ongoing outside of the public eye, and one of the systems of NGAD is CCA. Already, there have been tests of artificial intelligence (AI) in combat aircraft this year:
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F-16 Vs X-62A: USAF Runs 1st Ever Dogfight Pitting A Human Pilot Against AI
Human flown F-16 flies against AI. What does this mean for military aviation?
Plus, the XQ-67, one prototype for the CCA project, had a first flight:
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US Air Force XQ-67 CCA Drone Prototype Makes First Flight
A new video shows the inaugural flight of the XQ-67A, which seeks to become the futuristic loyal wingman drone.
So, the CCA component is rolling along well. However, the human-controlled fighter has yet to formally break into public view, although both Boeing and Lockheed Martin have teased computer-generated images in marketing videos.
NGAD not a F-22 replacement
General Wilsbach also shared that NGAD is not intended to replace the F-22 Raptor. Some of this is due to cost. As US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall was quoted in the July 11 Defense News,
“It’s three times, roughly, the cost of an F-35, and we can only afford it in small numbers.”
Simple Flying further covered the dilemma in the article below:
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Related
NGAD Is No Replacement For F-22 Raptor: Head Of USAF Air Combat Command
More questions about the sixth-generation NGAD program have been raised after a general said it is not a replacement for the F-22 Raptor.
However, the US Air Force still wants the NGAD family of systems. Especially if this Sandboxx report is true that NGAD already had top-secret X-plane technology demonstrators:
The technology demonstrators are far more advanced than the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II (aka Panther). However, the US Air Force must balance having even more advanced warplanes and recapitalizing its overall fleet, which takes much money and planes. The US Air Force also wants not to repeat the mistake made to end F-22 Raptor production early in 2012, even as the People’s Republic of China’s Chengdu J-20 – as pictured below – had a 2011 test flight.
One also can listen to the below Aviation Week Check 6 podcast where speculation runs abound on budget gamesmanship with the US Congress for both the US Air Force’s NGAD and the US Navy’s F/A-XX. The podcast also explained where NGAD and B-21 fit in the US Air Force’s future air warfare strategy.
Listening to the podcast, one can also learn that Boeing is working on expanding its composite manufacturing capacity. Additionally, there is concern a failure to proceed on NGAD may stymie engine deveopment.
Bottom line
While NGAD is a system of systems, NGAD does need a costly human-controlled fighter aircraft to work. NGAD will not directly replace the F-22 Raptor but will surpass the capabilities of America’s rivals, Russia and the People’s Republic of China, to wage war from the air.
What is your assessment? Feel free to share in the thread.