Posted on 09/17/2020 12:32:54 PM PDT by Mariner
The U.S. Air Force announced it has already flown a new prototype fighter.
We know virtually nothing about the new plane ... other than it exists.
Most observers did not expect a new fighter for another decade.
The U.S. Air Force revealed this week that it has secretly designed, built, and tested a new prototype fighter jet. The fighter, about which we know virtually nothing, has already flown and “broken records.” The Air Force must now consider how it will buy the new fighter as it struggles to acquire everything from intercontinental ballistic missiles to bombers.
The Air Force’s head of acquisition, Will Roper, made the announcement yesterday in an exclusive interview with Defense News, in conjunction with the Air Force Association’s virtual Air, Space, and Cyber Conference.
The Air Force built the new fighter under its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, which aims to build a jet that would supplement, and perhaps even replace, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.
The Air Force built 186 Raptors, of which only about 123 are capable of the jet’s full spectrum of combat roles. And at current readiness levels, only around 64 of the fifth-generation fighters are ready to fight at a moment’s notice.
According to Defense News, the Air Force developed the new fighter in about a year—a staggeringly short amount of time by modern standards. The Air Force first developed a virtual version of the jet, and then proceeded to build and fly a full-sized prototype, complete with mission systems. This is in stark contrast to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
It was probably built so fast because it’s a pilot less drone.
That is STUNNINGLY GORGEOUS.
I have to imagine that picture is inspiring panic in the war rooms of our enemies right now. Vaguely reminds me of the YF-23. I wonder if that became some small group’s pet project over at Northrop Grumman and got 30 years of constant low-key development until the right person saw it and green-lit it.
Big push by some in DOD to get working prototypes out to fill capability gaps using reconfigured equipment coupled with new designs. Kick the tires and decide if it’s worth moving it forward. We can no longer create white elephants that take 10+ years to field and sustain for 30 more.
Look at the Bradley, abrams ....
Oh, Popular Mechanic do needs to sell magazines, so they grab on to any rumor they can that they can print.
The content of their magazines have been very thin for the past 8+ yrs. I recall that I could actually take a new one to the bathroom for reading material and still have more pages to read after I've done my business.
Nowadays, not so much.
If you have to ask, you can't afford it.
or it was made by ai
probably lots of ai went into the design & prototyping. if that’s true, then they will learn to design to spec for every battle space
Perhaps, but not necessarily. The rapid pace of development of the new fighter was due to having a digital flyoff between competing designs, with CADM software then filling in the details before any metal was cut or laser printed. These technologies have been in development for decades now, with their integration marking a new phase in industrial engineering. The result is that most of the subsystems in a production version of the fighter can be made to order, not borrowed and kludged together.
Exactly. Huge difference between 1990s development and today.
I’m willing to bet Skunk Works has almost finished the work on the SR-91, Aurora, which is “rumored” to Mach 6, with the same limited maneuverability of the SR-71, (flying that fast takes a while to turn).
The original work on Aurora, started in in the early 1980’s, was for surveillance. They may have made a few changes for armament and weapons. But with that speed and altitude capacity, it is going to be hard to hit and catch.
And to give you an idea, if the SR-71, mach 2 behind this one, was going to drop a bomb on Moscow coming from the CONUS, because of the altitude it would be and the speed it generates, it would turn loose of it over the Bering Sea and it would have to fly all the way across Russia.
But the SR-71 had bugs, like running over it’s own fired weapons. They put great cameras in them however and Charlie has even tried to shoot them down with missiles during the Vietnam crisis and later in Korea. Pilots just dropped the aircraft into overdrive and went over the horizon on them.
rwood
Is this the Top Secret Aurora planes people talk about?
Is this the Top Secret Aurora planes people talk about?
Integration will be a bitch.
“Oh ROAR a roar for Nora...”
Well crud, I was hoping to get one for my birthday next month. Mrs. diatomite probably won't be shopping for it.
“the YF-23. I wonder if that became some small group’s pet project over at Northrop “
Could swear I read of some deal Northrop (with US approval?) made with the Japanese to buy much of the YF-23 design for their own use.
Maybe aspects of the airframe and engine integration, but they’d never be able to sell the stealth or avionics to anyone. All that was massively classified.
It’s the reason you know the F-35 will never compete with the F-22 in the air: we don’t let our good tech leave our own shores. We don’t want to face anything that could actually beat us.
And we sold the F-35 to everyone with a checkbook.
And the new fighter is also likely to incorporate new materials and technologies like neural chips for AI and nanoscale fabricated components. With the frenetic Trump in charge, our friends and adversaries are having to deal with an American military amped up by hustle and innovation.
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