AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Themselves. They need Americans to support thus okay funding for this.
US F/A-XX and F-X & NGAD - 6th Gen Aircraft News Thread
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
The most interesting tidbit was that the USAF is going to keep competing NGAD. Its entirely possible that after 100 aircraft they'll compete the firms again for the next 100. They also seemed to imply that this incentivized the companies to be a bit more creative in their designs which has me curious. I really hope we get to see Lockmarts proposal eventually
This tells me they are not 100% satisfied with the F-47.
Which tells me they rushed into picking it.
Which tells me they had to compromised on somethings.
Which tells me they picked a cheaper option.
Which tells me the F-47 might not have the range (small size) and the superior stealth (canards) initially envisioned for the PCA part of the NGAD.
Who knows if USAF will have the money for these "increments" with the economic storm that's approaching.
In the same interview they said that the requirements for the F-47 have not changed and they went with the original design. And I don’t see how more competition is a bad thing?
Having skim the article--I more or less re-read it multiple times--I didn't see anywhere he stated this.
Your comment is inaccurate and can be taken out of context.
F-47 "MAYBE increment I" like he had said in the article and that more increments are possible can mean anything from having F-47B, F-47C to just newer CCA drones. His statement was very broad and felt like an off-hand comment and not a hint that NGAD program was still on. It's not.
And in fact, your suggestion of having another competition for a new fighter after 100 being built would be a terrible idea since it will raise the price per aircraft tremendously just like the F-22s and DDG-1000s. And the new vendor that wins the new contract for the next 100 planes will charge a lot for their design if they know from the start that only 100 will be build.
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I shouldn't have written that comment.
I hadn't read the article and went off from what you wrote which was inaccurate.
They won't be having new competition for a new NGAD. I don't know how you reached that conclusion after reading that article.
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They said in the interview that the US govt owns the design and IP, and they intend compete the companies constantly over who makes what components. And we've known since the beginning the US was considering iterating on NGAD much more often than past programs. The idea is you have the companies compete on different iterations and upgrades as well.
If those aircraft being tested from 2020 and onwards were actually just demonstrators/X-planes, it means they are already BEHIND both the J-36 and the J-50 programs, both of whom look like they are at the prototype stage. I doubt they could afford either the luxury of time or money to iterate a new version of the NGAD after 100 airframes.