The division of fighters into generations, even now, in many respects remains conditional. The creators of any F-16 were not faced with the task of creating a fighter that "meets the requirements of the fourth generation." They needed an aircraft that would meet the specific requirements of a particular time stage. And, for example, the Swedes do not see anything wrong with attributing the Saab JAS 39 Gripen to the same generation as the F-22 Raptor.
However, this still seems to be an overly frivolous manipulation of facts. After all, no matter how you look at it, stealth aircraft have a huge plus over conventional machines by default. They are harder to spot and therefore harder to shoot down. In principle, taking into account the rapid development of air defense and missile weapons, which greatly reduce speed and maneuverability, stealth is becoming a key parameter for a fighter.
This is enough to understand what the sixth generation fighters will look like. These vehicles should be the conceptual development of the F-22, F-35, J-20 and Su-57. Some authors also include hypersonic speed here, while they stubbornly ignore both the limitations of the human body and the fundamental technical difficulties of controlling the apparatus at hypersonic speeds. In other words, the sixth generation will be supersonic, but probably not hypersonic. Aircraft weapons can become hypersonic, but this is another topic.
Let's talk better about the programs of the sixth generation fighters that are already available. Most likely, it is within the framework of them that the first cars will be created, which will someday replace not only the "fours", but also the F-22 and F-35.
F / A-XX (US Navy)
Perhaps the most famous program for the creation of a sixth generation fighter. She has a rich history. Requirements were first defined in June 2008 and have been called differently at different times. In April 2012, the US Navy issued an official Request for information (RFI) for the F / A-XX. It was about a sky dominance fighter with ground / sea strike capabilities, capable of replacing the F / A-18E / F Super Hornet multi-role fighters and EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft in the 2030s around the 2030s. The F / A-XX fighter will not completely replace the new F-35C Lightning II deck boats, but will complement them, significantly expanding the capabilities of the fleet.
In general, the US military sees the carrier-based combat aviation of the future as a kind of trio: the F-35, F / A-XX and a promising strike UAV, similar to the Northrop Grumman X-47B.
By the way, now F / A-XX is seen as manned, unmanned, or optionally manned. Independent experts are more inclined towards the third option, but no one can say for sure what the Pentagon will want in a decade. After all, unmanned systems evolve very, very quickly, and whether a pilot will be needed in the cockpit is hard to say.
It is difficult to speak with confidence about the appearance of the future car. However, back in 2010, the Boeing Phantom Works division within the framework of research and development on the sixth generation for the fleet made it clear that we could talk about a two-seat twin-engine fighter, which, in order to reduce radar signature, was equipped with a smooth wing-fuselage interface and deprived of any horizontal tail.
Next Generation Air Dominance (United States Air Force)
In May of this year, it became known that the "six" of the US Navy and Air Force had parted completely. And now the Navy intends to receive an aircraft, the requirements for which will differ significantly from the requirements for the land version, which has the symbol Next Generation Air Dominance.
In general, we have figured out what the F / A-XX should become, now let's look at the cars for the Air Force. As the name suggests, we will have a natural air fighter - the heir to the F-22 - whose main feature will be the ability to penetrate deeply into enemy territory with the ability to effectively defend promising B-21 strategic bombers. The Navy, as it turned out, does not need this, since it relies on ultra-long-range missiles. From this we can conclude that the fighter for the Air Force will, among other things, have a very long range.
This will require new solutions, one of which is the Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology (ADVENT) program, which aims to develop an adaptive turbojet engine for combat aircraft for the United States Air Force. It is proposed that such an engine will consume 25 percent less fuel and have 10 percent more thrust than other existing modern engines, which together will increase the range by 30 percent, all other things being equal.
The new aircraft will also receive more serious armament than the existing machines. In November 2013, the US Air Force Research Laboratory issued a request for information on laser weapons. The Air Force is interested in three categories of lasers: low-power (for aiming and hitting enemy sensors), medium-power (for protecting against missiles), and powerful (for hitting enemy aircraft and ground targets). All these systems are planned to be installed on the new sixth generation fighter.
NGF (Germany, France, Spain)
The first rumors about the plans of the Europeans to create a sixth generation fighter appeared about a year ago, and in February last year it became known that France and Germany had signed an agreement on the beginning of the conceptual stage of research work within the framework of the new fighter program. Spain has already joined the project, and in the future other European aircraft manufacturers may also participate in it.
The stealth fighter will have to replace the French Dassault Rafale and the pan-European Eurofighter Typhoon around 2035-2040. The NGF fighter is part of the larger Système de combat aérien du futur (SCAF) program aimed at creating a pan-European "system of systems" that will play a major role in ensuring the security of the EU countries. In addition to the new combat aircraft, the military will also receive new UAVs and control and guidance systems.
What will NGF look like? It is known that the French from Dassault Aviation will play the leading role in its creation. In 2018, the company showed the first image of the European fighter of the future in its video.
The chosen aerodynamic design is similar to the one they want to use for the American sixth generation fighter. So, the machine is completely devoid of vertical tail. However, if the "American" is sometimes painted with a front horizontal tail, the European car does not have it. From the front, the plane is similar to the Dassault Rafale, and the shape and size of the canopy makes it very likely that the NGF wants a two-seater: at least one of the versions of the fighter. However, there is an opinion that over the years of development, the appearance of the aircraft may change more than once. Most likely, it will be so.
Tempest (British Air Force)
This is perhaps the strangest "guest", despite the fact that the program seems at first glance more elaborate than the rest. This is due to the effective presentation of the aircraft mockup at the Farnborough Air Show in summer 2018. Then it was reported that the fighter could be born in the 30s and replace the Eurofighter Typhoon in the British Air Force.
To create the aircraft, the consortium BAE Systems, MBDA, Rolls Royce and the Italian Leonardo were combined to form Team Tempest. They plan to spend $ 2.7 billion on the project until 2025: they want to build the plane in both manned and unmanned versions. They intend to make the car according to the tailless scheme: it has two keels deflected to the sides and two engines.
The concept assumes the abandonment of instruments in the cockpit in the usual form. The pilot will see all the information using augmented reality, but in the event of an emergency, there is one large display in the cockpit.
As we said, the future of the project looks hazy due to the existence of the Franco-German project, as well as the gigantic cost of developing the aircraft, which is likely to surpass the cost of creating the F-22 and F-35. Most likely, the British will not be able to implement their plans in practice, and Tempest will join the pan-European program. However, for this it itself must grow and develop.
