The future of the 6th-generation fighter that is being considered to replace the F-22A Raptor in the US Air Force (USAF) is even more uncertain.
That’s what Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall suggested during a conference in Daytona, Ohio, on Tuesday.
Asked about the Next Generation Air Dominance (NAGD) program, Kendall revealed that the USAF will suspend development for a few months to see if it is on the “right course.”
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According to him, the concept needs to be reviewed before moving forward with a contracted project with a supplier, something that was expected to happen this year.
The US military faces a huge dilemma caused mainly by the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The more than two years of conflict have brought important lessons on the battlefield, the main one being that manned aircraft have become ineffective.
Instead, increasingly complex and powerful tactics using drones have been successful due to their low cost and the fact that they do not expose crew members to high risks.
Collaborative Combat Aircraft
NGAD was born as a package of systems that includes not only a manned fighter, but also the so-called Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), advanced drones with combat capabilities that will operate under external or autonomous control.
The progress of projects in this direction has been great, reinforced by the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which has overshadowed the development of conventional projects.
Although NGAD was conceived from the beginning to be a program with lower costs through digital tools and the use of an open architecture platform, it still requires massive investments.
As far as is known, only Boeing and Lockheed Martin are competing, since Northrop Grumman has already declined to compete for the contract.
The Air Force, however, wants smaller contractors to also participate in the program in certain areas in order to accelerate innovation and seek lower costs.
