New Details Emerge About The Secretive Program That Aims To Replace The F-22

Lieutenant General Clinton Hinote, the Air Force’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategy, Integration and Requirements, has provided new details about the service’s plans for its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program. This ‘system of systems’ aerial combat modernization effort is expected to yield, among other things, a new sixth-generation fighter jet. Hinote also provided additional information about a plan put forward earlier this week by Chief of Staff of the Air Force General Charles Brown, calling for the NGAD to replace the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter starting in the next decade, part of a larger proposal to trim the service's fighter fleets down to just four types, which you can read about more here.

Responsible for developing Air Force strategy and multi-domain operating concepts, Hinote gave interviews to both Air Force Magazine and Defense News in which he filled in some aspects of the highly secretive NGAD initiative. He also explained how the timeline for that program fits in with still-ongoing planning regarding the eventual retirement of the F-22.

Hinote, who is a former F-16 Viper and F-117 Nighthawk pilot, told Defense News that, at least right now, he doesn’t anticipate replacement of the F-22 with the NGAD to begin until the 2030s, by which time the Raptor will be “a 40-year-old platform."

“We don’t have to make that decision this year,” Hinote continued. “What we’re going to want to see is, when do we press from the NGAD being a developmental program to being a production program?”

The Air Force has so far been tight-lipped about the timeline for when any aircraft developed under NGAD will enter service, although it was disclosed last September that at least some kind of demonstrator platform for the program is already flying. In his interview with Air Force Magazine, Hinote hinted that a second demonstrator — potentially an entirely new follow-on design — might be in some stage of production now.

“As you’re allowing that program to mature, through a spiral series, you’re designing the next platform” with new software and sensor technology, Hinote told Air Force Magazine. He also hinted that new iterations could come along every five to eight years.

That kind of rapid technology turnover is something that was espoused by Will Roper, the former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, in what was termed the “Digital Century Series,” an ambitious goal you can read more about here. Apart from this concept, the Air Force is also working on the Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Platform Sharing (LCAASP) program that aims to deliver two attritable/reusable UAV variants that will be “derived from a common system architecture that share core system features and are tailored to perform specific missions, similar to Valkyrie’s modular approach,” in the words of a policy paper from the Mitchell Institute, an airpower think tank. This is part of the Air Force’s studies into creating scalable aircraft families based around common components.

However, it also seems likely that the Air Force has not settled on to what degree NGAD will be based around a manned platform or platforms. Hinote told Defense News that the program includes manned, unmanned, and optionally manned segments but suggested that not all of those might go forward into operational service. “Frankly I think we’re going to explore all of those to go forward to see exactly what the best use of this is,” he said. Meanwhile, Air Force Magazine reported that NGAD would definitely include an optionally manned platform based on its own conversation with Hinote.

Of course, with the system of systems approach, it’s also possible that Hinote was specifically referring here to a platform earmarked to replace the F-22 since it seems almost certain that NGAD will incorporate at least some unmanned platforms.

Exactly how the manned/unmanned conundrum plays out, Hinote did tell Air Force Magazine that, more generally, he expects autonomous aircraft to be used increasingly as force multipliers and referenced the recent first flight test of an initial version of the artificial intelligence-driven “computer brain” being developed under the Skyborg program. It’s worth noting, too, that the Air Force has publicly talked about Skyborg initially being intended to support operations of loyal wingman-type semi-autonomous drones, after which the goal is to insert this technology into a more robust, fully-autonomous unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV). There has also been some discussion already about integrating some of this autonomous technology into manned aircraft, which could potentially present a pathway to turning existing or future manned types into optionally piloted ones.

More money for the F35 flying brick.

Gotta spend that money...

A lot of code words to say more black tranny midget amputees as fighter pilots.

I'm reading between the lines some, but it basically says it is a stealth A-10 that they will launch from the new battleships

Thread title is blurry and almost impossible to read on page 1 for some reason

Elon Musk predicted this last year, the fighter jet era has passed, the future is drones.  I doesn't surprise me that the F-22 replacement will be autonomous, with the option to be manned.  

The whole point of a sixth generation fighter is not to dog fight, but to shoot down enemy aircraft without being seen.  It's secondary role is to conduct deep strikes against IADs and other HVTs without putting pilots in harm's way.

What they should do is base a new jet on the F-22 airframe design but with updated F-35 avionics and integrated communications.

Then they should design the production so that the assembly line is essentially always going. They should keep manufacturing them until the replacement is flying. That way the capability to replace an airframe is never lost, the skill set to build the jet is retained.

If they need lots more, scale up production, if they want to budget cut or have enough, dial back production to monthly, quarterly, maybe yearly assembly that will replace airframes lost to attrition, or time out from use.

It seems too many great legacy platforms die because shit they'd like to keep using can't be replaced without a complete redesign.

40 years from the Wright brothers to the SR71.  40 years from the F-22 to whatever they are writing about.  Something is odd about the slow pace of aircraft development.

I feel compelled to post this now...



Unfortuantly no one is going to rip the toxins out of this things gut.

At this point why do they even need the option to be manned?

I could probably spend all day discussing this statement. But I suppose the super short version is that we have hit a point of diminishing returns. There's a famous anecdote that back in the 70s someone noticed the increasing price of combat aircraft and did a study. Concluding that by the year... Oh I forget... 2060 I think? That the entire military budget would be able to buy one fighter aircraft which would have to be shared between the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

We seem to be on schedule.

If they aren't building X-37s with rail guns and SDB with heat tiles what's the point!

60 years.

i heard a few rumors that the air force had developed some 6th gen fighter in like a year... That would be the demonstrator they are talking about.

We can't build more f22s so it's rather intelligent to come up with other plans.

I had a fun thought today, load a starship up with kamikaze micro drones or other sort of smart targeting devices... would probably be considered a wmd.

Exponential increase in complexity

Legacy fighter pilots are Generals now who stamp these projects for approval. It's their way of justifying their job still, or at least not letting that fighter pilot ethos die.

They just need to paint some camo and insignia their tictacs and they're good to go.

If we really do already have a Gen 6 fighter...then who cares if the F-22 goes away in 9 years.  There is probably a 100 - 1 ratio, with that kind of tech.

I wonder what the Air Force would do if the Army just bought a predator like drone designed to chuck Aim 120s and mid course update using other sensor platforms and called it an extension of Air Defense mission.

Take it over via Key West Agreement and kill the program. Probably give the drones to the coast guard.

If it fly's with a fixed wing, the Army can only have it if the AF allows.

let do it !

Got that, but also isn't there an equally exponential increase in manufacturing, design, and research technology?  It all just seems odd to me.

If the sensors aren't n the shooter, nor the person calling the shots its literally a sam battery with better performance.

Build a micro kamikaze drone in the shape of a golf ball.  Mail a few dozen to the local AFB.  Every time one gets tee'd off at the base golf course, mini props emerge from it, it goes into Kamikaze mode, and heads over to the flight line.  It would take them weeks before they figured it out.

This country cannot build something like that at this point. Diversity was considered the supreme goal, and everything has been sacrificed at its alter. It’s just a giant waste of money. We could no more do this than the Congo could put together a high speed rail system.

You spelled California wrong.

Possible photo!?
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"You must think in Woke.  You can not think in Based, and transpose."

Remember how our glorious air force stopped the Russian intruders from closing down the Colonial pipeline and defeated the Chinese coronavirus biological attack?

Oh wait.

Honestly, all kidding aside, our next generation fighters need to be 100% pilotless...

The real MiG-31 is still kinda cool.

How soon before they are hacked and turned against us.

6th gen fighter?

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TC

For sure. And for whatever reason they don’t give it that horrid DigiSlav camo paint job like they do their other fighters. Maybe it’s a PVO thing?