US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
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That's a bit more complex than it appears to be.
The NGAD manned component is going to be expensive. However, the loyal wingman drones who are going to provide it with force multipliers capabilities are going to be cheap.
So while the NGAD manned component is going to be expensive, as a total, the NGAD system is probably going to be cheap when comparing its roles and capabilities with non-NGAD aircraft
6th Gen is going to be fundamentally different than what we have known from the past classic aircraft generations. We might even have to drop the entire "X Gen" classification as the future of warfare will be more centered on "system of systems" confrontation than on individual platforms
While the unmanned ones should be cheaper, it probably won't be that cheap, unless the specs of it are gonna be quite a lot worse than the manned one.
If anything, maybe expect at most 50% if even that, which means a F35 if the manned is double of a F35.
Afterall, at the end of the day it's 'just' removing the cockpit and life support (unless I'm wrong and you can point to something that can massively save money).
American drones are anything but cheap. That's why Turkish manufacturers have managed to carve out a piece of the market. They are 5 times cheaper than the American equivalent, despite using mainly western components. You can imagine how much cheaper a Chinese verision would be.
Maybe the competition will start to make them price their products more competitively, but I doubt it.
I don't agree with labelling autonomy as 6th generation. Autonomy is more like a new platform than an evolution of existing ones.
So far I've not seen anything that's worthy of being designated 6th gen.
It's crazy to see American MIC so dependent on Russia for aluminium and titanium. I mean it's not like metal ores aren't abundant in America or anywhere else. It shows they will do anything to make as much money as possible.
The thing with Russia and titanium was never that much about availability of the metal ore. It is more about cheap abundant energy and huge production facilities which have been working and been optimized since Soviet times. The funny thing is the Russians haven't slapped any sanctions on titanium exports. This is all self-inflicted by US companies trying to move away from Russian titanium products. Another large producer of the raw titanium metal is Kazakhstan. Right now Kazakhstan isn't joining Russia in any of their economic measures. But Kazakhstan is still part of the EAEU. There are also suppliers in Japan and less so in the US.
Another big one would be uranium. Right now the US hasn't put it on the sanctions list. Because US nuclear power reactors are highly dependent on Russian uranium fuel supplies. And what they do not get from Russia, they get from Urenco, and Urenco is getting the uranium ore for the fuel from Kazakhstan as well... Some years ago Russia just blocked transit of the uranium from Kazakhstan through Russia to St. Petersburg as the export port as retaliation. Now they expect to send it over the Caspian Sea by ship to Urenco. But if they continue with their crap Russia might just blockade those shipments.
This is going to cause a major hit to engine manufacturers like Pratt & Whitney and GE. The US government expects to damage Russia's civil aviation industry with this move but, I think it will actually accelerate their growth. Putin had already directed them to have high native content in the Superjet-NEW and MC-21 since about 2010. That is why you see the PD-14 already in batch production and the PD-8 in advanced stage of ground testing of whole prototype engine. With flight tests on test platform of PD-8 expected late this year or early next year.
Another big one would be uranium. Right now the US hasn't put it on the sanctions list. Because US nuclear power reactors are highly dependent on Russian uranium fuel supplies. And what they do not get from Russia, they get from Urenco, and Urenco is getting the uranium ore for the fuel from Kazakhstan as well... Some years ago Russia just blocked transit of the uranium from Kazakhstan through Russia to St. Petersburg as the export port as retaliation. Now they expect to send it over the Caspian Sea by ship to Urenco. But if they continue with their crap Russia might just blockade those shipments.
This is going to cause a major hit to engine manufacturers like Pratt & Whitney and GE. The US government expects to damage Russia's civil aviation industry with this move but, I think it will actually accelerate their growth. Putin had already directed them to have high native content in the Superjet-NEW and MC-21 since about 2010. That is why you see the PD-14 already in batch production and the PD-8 in advanced stage of ground testing of whole prototype engine. With flight tests on test platform of PD-8 expected late this year or early next year.
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The US's titaniun ore reservers are also negligible. Australia does have the second largest reserves, but as mentioned, the largest manufacturer of metallic titanium(and probably the one with lowest overhead as they have been at it the longest) is Russia.
After all, the US had to buy the SR-71's titanium from the Soviet Union.
After all, the US had to buy the SR-71's titanium from the Soviet Union.
