A tailless, fast, long-range, and very stealth manned penetrator has been talked about in recent years as a new 'fighter,' especially under the Penetrating Counter-Air and other now-defunct initiatives. The reality is that such an aircraft could be part of a much larger family of platforms, but unmanned technologies and less 'exquisite,' but more diverse and plentiful platforms with distributed capabilities are likely to dominate air wars of the future. Lockheed Martin
Warzone/The Drive: The Air Force's Secret Next Gen Air Dominance Demonstrator Isn't What You Think It Is
Like the future of air combat in general, there are lots of misconceptions about the secret technology demonstrator and the program it belongs to.
There has been a ton of press about a Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) demonstrator of some type having already been designed and flown even as the program is still supposedly in its conceptual stages. While this sounds exciting, and it is, I think there may be a chasm between reality and what is being circulated even days after the news initially hit. Most importantly, it is very unlikely that this new 'demonstrator' is a 'fighter,' at least as we would traditionally define it.
Let's start with where this all came from. The news originated from an address from the Air Force's acquisition chief, Will Roper, to the Air Force Association's main annual symposium, this year's iteration being virtual, which was remarkably on-brand for his presentation. In it, he talked about ushering in a new era where rapid design and experimentation of new aircraft and air combat concepts, including the 'manufacturing' and 'flight testing' of them will occur primarily in the digital realm.
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Update: The Nearly Decade-long Story That Led To NGAD Flight Demonstrator (Aviation Week)
WNU Editor: All of these technologies are still years away form being manufactured and deployed. But it is an indication on where the US Air Force wants to go.
