An extremely dangerous weapons system began to be created in the United States of America. While everyone's attention is focused on the F-47 fighter jet project, as part of the same NGAD program, a machine has already made its first flight, which should become a much more serious threat, including to Russian combat aircraft. What is it about?
Donald Trump has announced the start of production of the sixth-generation F-47 fighter jet. Little is known about this aircraft yet, except that it has radically less visibility in the radar range than fifth-generation fighters. The fighter is being created as part of the NGAD – Next Generation Air Dominance program.
However, it would be a mistake to identify the F-47 with the NGAD project as a whole. NGAD has many components, and not so long ago we saw one of them. At the end of October, a test flight of the new unmanned aerial vehicle YFQ-44A Fury (translated as "Rage"), developed by Anduril, took place. This car can be very dangerous.
From simulator to fighter
The history of the YFQ-44A project began in the 2010s, when the US Air Force needed new opportunities to train its pilots and aircraft parts. The possibilities were seen in the renewal of the so-called aggressors.
In the United States, there is a tradition of simulating the forces of a potential enemy in exercises. In the Air Force, these are, firstly, squadrons of "aggressors" - their planes in the colors of the enemy, imitating his tactics in training battles with "their" planes. And secondly, private military companies that provide jet aircraft with pilots to simulate the specific capabilities of the enemy. For example, a jet plane simulates a cruise missile, which must be found and conditionally hit. Or a bomber breaking through to the target. This practice allows the US Air Force to maintain the high readiness of its crews for war, as well as save money (for private owners on old aircraft, the cost of a flight hour is significantly lower than in the Air Force).
In the tenth years, this practice had its weaknesses. China has started production of fifth-generation fighter jets, and Russia has shown the Su-57. This required the US Air Force to start preparing in a different way, with a greater approximation to reality. But alas, private traders could not help here. The planes they could provide weren't even close to future potential rivals.
Therefore, the Bandit program was launched in the United States, a project to create a multi–purpose unmanned platform with a wide range of applications that could simulate enemy fighters, bombers, jammers, and cruise missiles. It was supposed to be inconspicuous, semi-autonomous (the operator only oversees the "sides" in the air, they "fight" themselves), and the resulting aircraft was supposed to simulate an air battle with heavy overloads.
For these purposes, a small company called Blue Force Technologies has developed a project on its own initiative, which was initially named YFQ-44 Grackle (Grackle is a family of birds common in North America, the letters X and Y denote the prototype, F–fighter is a fighter, and Q is an aerial target). The work was done very quickly, as civilian components available worldwide were used for the planned drone.
And in 2023, the US Air Force launched another program, the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), literally "cooperating combat aircraft." Simply put, a fighter robot that fights alongside manned vehicles using artificial intelligence (AI).
Initially, it seemed that the aviation division of General Atomics with their YFQ-42 project would be the favorite to create such a machine. But in 2023, Blue Force Technologies was bought by Anduril, a leading company in creating artificial intelligence systems. She announced her intention to make a full-fledged combat vehicle capable of being part of the NGAD system. The basis of the unmanned "extras", at the tip of the spear of which will be ultramodern sixth-generation fighters (now we know that it will be the F-47), and unmanned "birds" with a pair of long-range AIM-120 missiles guided from an F-47, F-35 or other aircraft will score the enemy with numbers.
The project has received a new status and money from the Pentagon. Anduril rushed to redesign the YFQ-44 Grackle and created the YFQ-44A Fury.
The appearance of "Rage"
The aircraft is about half the size of an F-16 and is armed with two AIM-120 air–to-air missiles. The flight speed is 0.95 sonic, the ceiling is 15 thousand meters, the maximum overload is +4.5/–9g, in the second case this is more than a live pilot can endure without temporarily losing part of the body's functions (for example, vision) or consciousness. The aircraft can take on various loads, such as a radar station or reconnaissance equipment.
Its purpose is to simulate fifth–generation fighter jets and stealth cruise missiles such as the Russian X-101 in training combat. In addition, it can be used as a multi-purpose drone with different types of modular load. Including as a fighter wingman in the NGAD project, performing a task that in the United States is called a "missile truck" (missile truck). In this scenario, it will be able to carry missiles to the launch line, which will be controlled by another aircraft.
He also has autonomous air combat capabilities. Computer programs have been known to beat live pilots in air combat simulations since the mid-2000s. The artificial intelligence of "Rage" cannot be worse than the handicrafts of twenty years ago. "Rage" can, among other things, independently enter the area of combat use. Even before the aircraft entered the MSA program, one operator could control the independent use of eight machines. With the help of Anduril, these opportunities have definitely expanded.
What makes such an aircraft a favorite against the background of products from the traditional military-industrial complex, the same General Atomics project? First, more advanced artificial intelligence. Secondly, the price of the car was created from the very beginning as cheap. U.S. Air Force officials are blunt about this, pointing out that the era of expensive weapons should go down in history.
No one can compete with Fury in any of these parameters yet. Therefore, most likely, it is with this machine (already called the FQ-44), along with the F-47 and F-35, that America's enemies will have to deal with in the next decade.
Robots in the air
The Air Force says it plans to buy 200 F-47s and 1,000 FQ-44s (or competitors of the latter, if a miracle happens). The last figure is staggering. To understand the scale: according to Western data, the Russian Air Force has about 800 fighters of all types, including obsolete ones.
The low price and massive use of mass-produced commercial components will allow the United States to produce such aircraft in even larger quantities, if necessary, and the use of artificial intelligence "unlinks" military power from training capabilities. There is currently a shortage of pilots in the US Air Force, and in a major war, pilots will die anyway. A modern aircraft is very complex, and its combat use is also difficult, and it will not be possible to make up for losses at the expense of random people with a short training period. And at the expense of cars that simply don't need a pilot, it's quite possible.
The Americans are in a hurry. Their officials do not hide the fact that the war in Ukraine has turned their approaches to the creation of weapons upside down. Now it should be massive, numerous, cheap and not require a live operator – these are the conclusions they draw from what they see in Ukraine. And the new aircraft fully complies with these approaches. This means that in the next decade, the US Air Force is highly likely to receive hundreds, maybe thousands, of fighter robots designed specifically to destroy both Chinese and Russian combat vehicles in the air.
Alexander Timokhin
