The US Air Force will receive the first fighter of the 6th generation in five years or even earlier. Yesterday, October 4, the portal defensenews.com He reported that the United States has officially abandoned the traditional approach under the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program.
As Will Roper, head of the US Air Force Procurement Department, previously stated, instead of large—scale investments and long-term development of a single new-generation fighter, the Century Series approach will be applied - the creation of several aircraft models and their release in small batches.
A rendering of a promising US Air Force fighter
Image source: defensenews.com
"Depending on the capabilities of the industry and the requirements of my team, we will set goals that will allow us to quickly build new aircraft from scratch. My estimate is five years. I may be wrong, and it will happen sooner. In the long term, this may not be enough to counter future threats, but five years is much better than the time we have now," Roper said.
The US Air Force used the Century Series approach in the 50s and 60s. A series of fighter-bombers and interceptors (F-100 — F-106) is known by this name.
F-104 Starfighter, F-100 Super Sabre, F-102 Delta Dagger, F-101 Voodoo and F-105 Thunderchief fighters (clockwise from bottom)
Image source: afhra.af.mil
According to Roper, the working name of the promising aircraft series is the Digital Century Series. Instead of taking a long time to refine the technology to create an "exquisite fighter", the Air Force will quickly build the best fighter that the industry can assemble in a couple of years, integrating all the best technologies available right now. It is planned to achieve this by combining three industrial technologies: flexible software development, open architecture and digital engineering.
