In December of 2022, the first sixth generation stealth bomber B-21 Raider was unveiled to the public. But a sixth generation fighter jet is yet to be produced. The F/A-XX program is intended to deliver just that.
Current renderings of the future fighter jet, show a tailless plane without vertical stabilizers. Although it is an early rendering and often does not display, what the eventual fighter looks like when finished, it might tell us something about the plans for it.
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| Artist rendering of F/A-XX fighters |
While it is clear, that most of the advancements happen under the air-frame like sensors, open data architecture, networking capabilities, engine technology and so on, the design might give a few hints on the engineers intentions.
With software controlled flight stabilizing getting so cheap and accessible, that it is even running on things like an Arduino board (https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/projects/tags/drones) there is no more need for building an aircraft around maximum stability these days, which makes radical designs feasible like seen in the F-117 Nighthawk or the B-2 bombers as both airplanes were extremely aerodynamically unstable and could not be flown without computerized flight control.
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| F-117, stealthy but unstable |
Getting rid of the vertical stabilizers and going with a tailless design leads to less drag. This means higher fuel efficiency and potentially longer range. Something the F-35 is criticized for. Especially with the current military understanding, that China is the main rival of the USA it might be designed with a potential conflict with China in mind. One of the likeliest scenarios would evolve around an attack on Taiwan from China's mainland, making it important for the US to have an aircraft carrier capable design with long range, as they do not want to risk a multi billion dollar ship by parking it in range of China's (hypersonic) missiles.
Therefore long range is crucial in such a potential conflict.
Other than that, such a design also has fewer surfaces to reflect incoming radar waves. Which means higher emphasis on stealth. Showing again, that stealth is still regarded as very important to the US military.
Often the canards are discussed to be a diminishing factor in stealth but it might not be necessarily the case as the J-20 and the X-36 are both associated with good stealth capabilities.
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| Stealthy despite canards and agile due to thrust vectoring |
The chances of ending up with a result like shown in the designs is also very likely when considering, that the US has lots of data on similar air-frames.
Notable examples are:
-X-36 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_X-36)
-Boeing/McDonell Douglas Bird of prey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Bird_of_Prey)
-B2/B21 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_B-2_Spirit)
...and many other unmanned vehicles.
Pictures often also display the jet to be equipped with two engines rather than one, which could indicate a bigger plane in general. This could also hint at bigger fuel reserves and/or higher weapon load capabilities, something the F-35 also was criticized for.
Additionally the design is very reminiscent of the YF-23 in terms of how the engines are located. In some pictures the exhaust nozzle shows similarities to the ones found on the B-2. Potentially indicating measures to further reduce the heat signature of the plane.
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| YF-23 and its unique engine positioning |
This indicates, that stealth might be way more important to the US than high maneuverability. Especially since the renderings so far do not show things such as three-dimensional thrust vectoring but instead a design associated with a lesser degree of maneuverability. As such it follows the idea of dog fights being dead and a strong focus on beyond visual range combat, already big part of the F-35 and F-22 philosophy.
As for now, this is an highly speculative article and I hope to share some interesting thoughts on the development of the new fighter jets. But as fascinating as those planes might be, I also hope they will not be used in combat. It stands to hope, that China might develop into a more democratic country without the desire to declare war on a peaceful country such as Taiwan.
