Faster, deadlier, ‘armed with drones and lasers’: US Air Force just flew its 6th generation fighter

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The next-generation fighter jet secretly built and tested by the US Air Force has been flown for the first time, media reports say.

The news of the so-called 6^th generation fighters, which are far superior to anything the world has seen so far, was first broken by Defense News this week.

The development has come as a bolt from the blue for even some military watchers, as the demonstration of a successful test flight was not expected for several years.

The US Air Force has “built and flown a full-scale flight demonstrator in the real world”, Defense News quoted the US Air Force’s head of acquisition Will Roper as saying.

Details still remain very sketchy, and enormous secrecy surrounds the project. But that has not stopped analysts and military experts from sharing their perspectives on the next level of aviation technology that will revolutionise air warfare.

From Gen 5 to Gen 6

Also known as the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter, the 6^th generation fighters would follow the F-22 stealth jet, a fifth-generation fighter.

However, the US Air Force is re-thinking what it means to be ‘next gen’. The new leap forward is not just about a single plane that is technologically more advanced, but in fact reimagines an entire new system which includes both unmanned and manned planes.

Boeing and Lockheed (makers of the F-22)  are both believed to be in the running to develop sixth-generation fighters, which are being described as “the most complicated systems that have ever been built” — and some reports suggest that they may come armed with laser weapons.   

Service budget documents indicate that the 6^th generation fighters will feature enhancements in “survivability, lethality and persistence” across multiple military operations.

The final cost of the programme is expected to cross $8 billion through 2025.

Meanwhile, the US Navy is also looking to acquire its own 6^th generation fighters.

Drones and lasers?

While the project is cloaked in secrecy, some independent experts believe that the US Air Force’s 6^th generation fighters will come loaded with drones and laser weapons.

The drones may be armed with air-to-air missiles that could entrap or confuse the enemy. If this is true, it may also help the pilots avoid extremely dangerous enemy positions, and let the high-tech drones complete some tricky missions.

Another game-changer, analysts suggest, could be laser weapons.  

At the moment, the F-35 makes use of chemical energy guns, and the need to include the weapons, sensors and fuel inside the plane limits the gun magazine’s size.

If the 6^th generation fighters’ arsenal includes laser weapons, they would draw their power from the engines of the aircraft.

A laser could potentially hit enemy planes in a direct line, blasting them from the skies in a split second, and also have the ability to shoot down enemy missiles. 

This would signify a quantum leap over the chemical energy guns, making the 6^th generation fighters the deadliest flying machines ever to take to the skies.

The use of Artificial Intelligence in the 6^th generation fighters is only to be expected, but some analysts believe that AI will play a central role in nearly the entire operations, with total and seamless interfacing with satellite, ground communications and other data clusters.

The new fighters’ combat radius will almost certainly exceed that of the Gen 5 fighters which is about 670 nautical miles.

When these 6^th generation fighters finally take to the skies, the future of air power and its projection will change forever.