New Long-Range Stealth Fighter Teased In New Northrop Grumman Ad

 

Warzone/The Drive: Glitzy Northrop Grumman Ad Teases Totally Notional New Long-Range Stealth Fighter  

While it doesn't give away sensitive details, the ad points to Northrop Grumman's ambition to build the next-generation air dominance tactical jet. 

When it comes to glitzy ads, nobody is a bigger tease than Northrop Grumman. Who can blame them? With so much intellectual property and hardware hiding in the shadows, there is no better way to garner interest than to play all that up. I mean, who can forget the company's Superbowl ad prior to winning the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) contract that would morph into the B-21 Raider? Now a new ad gives us a hangar full of types to examine, and then some. Of course, this is all in good fun. The company is not going to out their most sensitive designs for marketing's sake. Still, it is fun to see what they put forward for our enjoyment and as a bit of a 'hint-hint.'  

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WNU Editor: I want to see more!

America’s New Sixth-Generation Stealth Fighter Is A Decade Ahead of Schedule

Reuters National Interest: America’s New Stealth Fighter Is Years Ahead of Schedule 

New advances such as mixed-mode electronics will create a powerful plane unlike anything the world has ever seen. 

Very little or even next-to-nothing is known about the mysterious, yet perhaps quite promising prototype sixth-generation stealth fighter which has exploded onto the scene and taken off into the air years ahead of schedule. 

Yet there is little doubt that it may be faster, stealthier, more maneuverable and lethal than anything the world has ever seen. 

How did a sixth-generation fighter demonstrator take to the sky many years, if not an entire decade, earlier than expected? 

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WNU Editor: This sixth-generation fighter is still a decade or two away from being deployed. But it is a decade ahead of development, and it is all due to digital engineering .... a computer simulation process through which weapons performance, design specs and sensor fidelity and other variables of critical importance to modern warfare can be tested, analyzed, refined and accurately evaluated.

The Air Force Wants A 6th Generation Fighter

Kris Osborn, National Interest: The F-35 Is the Past: Air Force's 6th-Generation Fighter Will Be a Everything

Armed with lasers and hypersonic missiles?

Key Point: While the notion of “manned” hypersonic flight is considered to be very far away, hypersonic weapons - to be followed by hypersonic drones - are moving closer to operational status. And they could be the weapons carried by the successor to the F-35.

(Washington, D.C.) Drone fighter jets, hypersonic attack planes, artificial intelligence, lasers, electronic warfare and sensors woven into the fuselage of an aircraft - are all areas of current technological exploration for the Air Force as it begins early prototyping for a new, 6th-Generation fighter jet to emerge in the 2030s and 2040s.

While the initiative, called Next Generation Air Dominance(NGAD), has been largely conceptual for years, Air Force officials say current “prototyping” and “demonstrations” are informing which technologies the service will invest in for the future.

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WNU Editor: It is going to be years before we see this program get off the ground. 

Will Europe Built A 6th Generation Fighter?

Image Dvids

Michael Peck, National Interest: F-35s Are So 2010: Europe's 6th Generation Might Be a Game Changer

But will they build it?

Ever since the guns fell silent in 1945, Europe has always been in third place in the global arms race.

Nations such as Britain, France and Sweden could devise weapons of clever and innovative design. But when it came to weapons technology, the innovation came from the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia, who were willing to spend vast amounts of treasure on military research and development.

But is a new generation of weapons coming that will put Europe on a par with America and Russia?

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WNU Editor: Will a coalition of European countries be willing to spend the hundreds in billions to develop and produce a 6th generation fighter jet? If recent history is any indication, the answer is a big no.

Is This What The US' Future Sixth-Generation Fighter Jet Will Look Like?

AFRL's conceptual sixth generation fighter. Screenshot/US Air Force

Daniel Brown, Business Insider: We asked a military aviation expert what the US' future sixth-generation fighter jet might look like

* A military aviation expert told Business Insider what a sixth generation fighter might look like, after the US Air Force Research Laboratory released a video teasing the future aircraft.
* Richard Aboulafia, a military aviation expert at the Teal Group, said that he expects it to be more about the accompanying systems — the weapons, outboard sensors, drones, etc. — than the air vehicle.
* He also said that while he's not in favor of an unmanned system or high energy lasers, the two capabilities are certainly possible.

The US Air Force Research Laboratory released a video in late March showing what a sixth-generation fighter jet might be like, as part of a push to plug its Science and Technology 2030 initiative.

The video shows a conceptual sixth-generation fighter jet, known as the F-X, firing what appears to be a high-energy laser that cuts another fighter in half.

It's still unclear what capabilities a sixth-generation fighter would have. Some have speculated it could have travel at hypersonic speeds, be able to switch between a manned and an unmanned aircraft, and more.

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WNU Editor: Here is a prediction .... the final design will not be what we are seeing today.

The U.S. Air Force Is Rushing To Build And Fly A Sixth-Generation Fighter Jet ASAP

© Flickr/ Times Asi

Gillian Rich, Investors Business Daily: Why Air Force Is Rushing To Fly A Sixth-Generation Fighter Jet

Lockheed Martin's (LMT) F-35, a so-called fifth-generation fighter, hasn't hit full rate production yet, but the Air Force is already accelerating the development of a sixth generation fighter as China ramps up its military.

The service is investing nearly $10 billion in the platform over the next five years, $2.7 billion more than previously planned, for the Next Generation Air Dominance system, which will likely include a fighter to replace current fifth generation platforms like the F-35 and Lockheed's F-22.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told reporters at a conference in Orlando Thursday that the system will have a "renewed emphasis" on electronic warfare, according to Aviation Week.

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Update: Pentagon Wants $500 Million to Research Sixth-Gen Warplane ‘Family of Systems’ (Sputnik)

WNU Editor: The U.S. Air Force has committed to spend $10 billion over the next five years to develop this fighter .... $3 billion more than what was originally planned.

U.S. Air Force Has Started To Experiment And Conceptualize A 6th Generation Fighter Aircraft

Northrop Grumman

Scout Warrior: Air Force Starts Experiments for 6th Gen Fighter

The Air Force has begun experimenting and conceptual planning for a 6th generation fighter aircraft to emerge in coming years as a technological step beyond the F-35, service leaders said.

"We have started experimentation, developmental planning and technology investment," Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, Military Deputy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, Acquisition, told Scout Warrior in an interview earlier this year.

The new aircraft, engineered to succeed the 5th-generation F-35 Joint StrikeFighter and explode onto the scene by the mid 2030s, is now in the earliest stages of conceptual development with the Air Force and Navy. The two services are now working together on early conceptual discussions about the types of technologies and capabilities the aircraft will contain. While the Air Force has not yet identified a platform for the new aircraft.

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WNU Editor: It is amazing how long it now takes to plan, conceptualize, experiment, develop, and manufacture these planes.

Europe Wants To Develop Their Own Sixth-Generation Fighter

German Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon takes-off during the air policing scramble in Amari air base, Estonia, March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

Reuters: Europe faces Herculean challenge to develop new fighter jet


Europe is embarking on an expensive and politically charged effort to develop a new combat jet that will shape the future of the European fighter industry and its three existing programs: Eurofighter, France's Rafale and Sweden's Gripen.

Two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters early talks had started on whether and how European countries could co-operate on a new sixth-generation fighter, which could involve a combination of manned and unmanned systems.

Though complicated by Britain's decision to leave the European Union, business executives and politicians at the Paris Airshow this week said U.S. President Donald Trump's cooler stance toward Europe had given the effort some fresh momentum.

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WNU Editor: Europe definitely has the expertise .... but do they have the monies/resources to commit to the development to such a project .... I just do not see it in today's age of austerity.

A Look At Some Sixth Generation Fighter Jet Designs

Popular Mechanics: 'Sixth Generation' Fighters Jets Are Already Taking Shape

The jets won't fly for another fifteen years, but are so complicated planning needs to start now.

The United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Japan are all in early planning stages for a so-called "sixth generation" of fighter jets. The jets won't fly until the 2030s, but governments around the world are already exploring designs.

Fifth generation fighters were different from their fourth generation predecessors by incorporating stealth directly into the designs of aircraft, resulting in sleeker planes that carry weapons internally and have a reduced radar signature. The downside is while fifth gen jets are capable of carrying fuel and weapons externally, doing so breaks their carefully designed stealth characteristics. Other features of fifth generation fighters include active electronic scanning array radars and engines powerful enough to cruise above the speed of sound without afterburners.

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WNU Editor: A short summary on sixth generation fighter jet designs.

Is Northrop Grumman Building A Sixth-Generation Stealth Fighter Jet?

Motley Fool: Is Northrop Grumman Building a Super-Jet?

Defense contractor kicks off the Super Bowl with an ad featuring a sixth-generation stealth fighter jet.

"There are those that see JSF as the last manned fighter. I'm one that's inclined to believe that."-- Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff 

"[The F-35] almost certainly will be the last manned strike fighter aircraft the Department of the Navy will ever buy or fly."
-- Ray Mabus, current Secretary of the Navy

For years, U.S. military top brass has insisted that once Lockheed Martin finishes building its F-35 fighter jet, American air power will be all drones, all the time. But it seems somebody forgot to send Northrop Grumman that memo.

Heedless of the Pentagon's plans to put fighter pilots out to pasture, Northrop joined the crowd of companies anteing up an estimated $5 million each to run 30-second ads during Super Bowl 50. The ad, which began running online days before the main event aired, features a selection of some of Northrop Grumman's most cutting edge military aircraft -- the X-47B carrier-borne stealth drone for example, the B-2 stealth bomber, and finally, about 10 seconds in, flying in formation across the screen, a trio of CGI fighter jets...that haven't been invented yet.

These, according to those who've seen the ad, represent Northrop's latest project: a sixth-generation fighter jet.

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WNU Editor: If Northrop Grumman is building a sixth-generation stealth fighter jet that would put the F-35 to shame .... they better do far more than just pumping a 30 second CGI commercial.

What America's 'Sixth- Generation Warplane' Will Look Like

Boeing's F/A-XX New Sixth Generation Fighter

Yes, There Will Be a New Jet Fighter After the F-22 and F-35 -- Dave Majumdar, War Is Boring

No, we’re not sure yet what it will look like

America’s next jet fighter—a so-called “sixth-generation” warplane— could be fundamentally different than the current fifth-generation F-22 and F-35. But it’s not clear yet what exactly that means.

In fact, terms like “fighter” or “bomber” might be holding the Pentagon back from taking full advantage of new technology.

“The technology has taken us to a point that has exceeded the vocabulary and semantics that have described aircraft in the past,” says David Deptula, a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence chief and former F-15 pilot. “When you move to sixth-generation, it is going to be even more different than the significant changes and advances in the technology that has given us the capabilities resident in the F-22 and F-35.”

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My Comment: I do not see the money for such a project .... certainly not in my lifetime.

The U.S. Air Force's Sixth Generation Fighter

What Will a Sixth Generation Fighter Look Like? No One Knows, Says ACC Commander -- Aol Defense

WASHINGTON: We aren't quite finished developing and producing our fifth generation aircraft, the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters, but their time is already running out, the head of Air Combat Command said today. And work has not really begun on a sixth generation aircraft.

Gen. Mike Hostage, the ACC commander, told an audience of more than 300 at the Center for International and Strategic Studies I guess the U.S. Air Force is operating on hope., that America's fifth generation aircraft were projected to maintain their superiority through 2030. Since the Marines' version of the F-35 won't achieve Initial Operating Capability until 2015, and the contract for the plane was awarded in 2001, this would seem to raise the question: can we build a sixth generation in time to deploy it roughly around the time fifth generation fighters' superiority wanes?

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Update #1: ACC chief hints at 6th gen fighter -- Air Force Times
Update #2: U.S. Air Combat Command Chief Hints at 6th Gen Fighter -- Defense News

My Comment: With no money in the budget, I cannot see this program even starting in the next decade or two.

Boeing’s Sixth-Generation Fighter

Boeing’s Sixth-Gen Fighter -- Defense Tech

Here’s a little update on this fighter design we showed you yesterday. It is indeed Boeing’s concept for a sixth-gen “air dominance” fighter for the U.S. Navy and Air Force, Daryl Davis, chief of Boeing’s Phantom Works division told me today. The plane, which is still just a concept, would have long-ranger range and fly at “higher mach numbers” (faster) than jets like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and be able to supercruise, according to Davis.

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My Comment: Lockheed may disagree, and Northrop has its own ideas. But what caught my eye in this post was that Boeing's Phantom Ray drone is being put into storage.