F/A-XX Fighter Revived as Congress Reverses Course on Navy’s Future Jet
Story by Charles Mitchell • 5h
The sixth-generation means air superiority in that timeframe in the future, which means sea control, Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever said to a crowd at the Center for Strategic and International Studies last month. His words, previously sounding like a future aim, now have weight as a near-decision. In a surprise move to defense observers, the Senate Appropriations Committee added more than $1.4 billion back into the U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX program reviving an effort at a carrier-based fighter that had been left panting on the Unfunded Priorities List.
The F/A-XX is more than simply another aircraft program; it is the Navy’s future sixth-generation strike fighter, scheduled to replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler in the 2030s. Its mission set is designed for the Indo-Pacific, where Chinese anti-access/area denial capabilities, like the 1,000-mile-range DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile and the PL-17 long-range air-to-air missile, seek to drive U.S. carriers beyond useful strike range. Analysts explain the Navy’s need for a 25 percent range increase over current fighters as meaning a combat range of more than 1,500 miles, with which to operate out of China’s missile envelope.
Technically, the F/A-XX will be the manned centerpiece of the Navy’s Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems, paired with unmanned “loyal wingmen” and capitalizing on open-architecture mission systems, AI-driven operations, and electronically reconfigurable “smart skins” integrating sensors into the airframe. It must also withstand the harsh conditions of carrier operations: reinforced airframes for catapult launches and arrested recoveries, folding wings for storage in hangars, and corrosion-resistant coating for saltwater exposure. All of these needs sharply diverge from the Air Force land-based F-47 NGAD fighter, making any common design approach both perilous and wasteful a lesson burned into Pentagon memory by the helter-skelter multi-variant F-35 program.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/f-a-xx-fighter-revived-as-congress-reverses-course-on-navy-s-future-jet/ar-AA1LtMsc?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=12ed1e16e4b54b7ecdec2a4358dbdb0a&ei=57
