US F/A-XX and F-X & NGAD - 6th Gen Aircraft News Thread

[anzha]

@anzha is right. This is a preamble dance by DoD and Navy to get more funding for the F/A-XX.

It COULD be a preamble. They do this so often it seems like a pattern. However, it's entirely possible under this administration the program has been cancelled or at least massively delayed.

 

[anzha]

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called it.

 

[Aval]

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called it.

The Navy can ask for all the funding that it wants, but what caught my eye in recent news was the admission that the F-47 was prioritised not mainly due to budget constraints, but actually to not overstretch America's very limited pool of top tier engineers in that niche field. It's not that they can't definitely run two 6th-gen fighter programmes at the same time, it's that they lack the confidence in their own industry to make such a gamble when China is already visibly pulling ahead. Better to have one good lump of 6th-gen iron of the ramp (or runway, in this case) than two separate halves.

So unless the Navy wants to invest those billions into wider US education, it might not change much in the relevant time frame. That is, of course, assuming they're not lying about their supposed lack of existing talent pool. It did feel like an unnecessary admission when strategically they can't afford such candour anymore.

 

[Maikeru]

The Navy can ask for all the funding that it wants, but what caught my eye in recent news was the admission that the F-47 was prioritised not mainly due to budget constraints, but actually to not overstretch America's very limited pool of top tier engineers in that niche field. It's not that they can't definitely run two 6th-gen fighter programmes at the same time, it's that they lack the confidence in their own industry to make such a gamble when China is already visibly pulling ahead. Better to have one good lump of 6th-gen iron of the ramp (or runway, in this case) than two separate halves.

So unless the Navy wants to invest those billions into wider US education, it might not change much in the relevant time frame. That is, of course, assuming they're not lying about their supposed lack of existing talent pool. It did feel like an unnecessary admission when strategically they can't afford such candour anymore.

Of course many US based engineers are excluded from such work on security grounds.

 

[ZeEa5KPul]

The U.S. seems to be increasingly in trouble:

View attachment 155214

"F-47, the first crewed sixth-generation fighter" is it? Once again, America proves that it's just India with money. More Jai by the day.

 

[cdj20]

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[tygyg1111]

"F-47, the first crewed sixth-generation fighter" is it? Once again, America proves that it's just India with money. More Jai by the day.

Wasn't the B21 the "first crewed 6th gen", or is my memory playing up again?

 

[manqiangrexue]

"F-47, the first crewed sixth-generation fighter" is it? Once again, America proves that it's just India with money. More Jai by the day.

They put the text on the presentation smaller and more in the corner than India did... and they had the presenter stand in front of it.


*China not included

 

[CMP]

Wasn't the B21 the "first crewed 6th gen", or is my memory playing up again?

That they wanted to put F-47 as the first suggests they may expect B-21 to start LRIP even later than F-47? Or is B-21 not going to be counted as 6th gen?

 

[SinoAmericanCW]

That they wanted to put F-47 as the first suggests they may expect B-21 to start LRIP even later than F-47? Or is B-21 not going to be counted as 6th gen?

The generation system is made to classify fighters. It was always a stretch by the U.S. to apply it to a bomber type; presumably, now that the F-47 is moving forward, they've dropped the pretense.