First of all, it must be said that it is just as Hu Niu expected. The sixth-generation fighter NGAD, which was previously hyped by the US media, still has problems. According to the report of the US media "Military Watch", US Air Force Secretary Kendall said recently , the sixth-generation aircraft developed by the United States encountered problems and had to be postponed. The development of fighter requires more time.
NGAD is the only and most important sixth-generation fighter development project of the U.S. Air Force. It aims to take the lead in developing sixth-generation fighter jets for the United States and ensure that the U.S.'s fighter advantage continues to lead the world's major military powers. US media said that as the successor to the F-15 and F-22 stealth fighters , the birth of the NGAD will obviously not be smooth sailing. This fighter is too complex and its development time has repeatedly exceeded the planned time. The US government is very concerned about this. The main concern is that looking around the world, not only the United States and China are also working on sixth-generation aircraft projects. If China develops sixth-generation aircraft before the United States, it will make the U.S. Air Force completely lag behind China in the development of fighter aircraft. This is absolutely unacceptable. tolerated. However, Kendall has repeatedly emphasized recently that developing NGAD will take more time. This is a long and arduous task. Such depressing words have to make people wonder, can the United States still ensure the technological advantages of the next generation fighter jets?
There is a big gap in the U.S. heavy fighter aircraft . The only heavy fighter currently in mass production by the U.S. Air Force is the F-15EX. This fighter is the latest improvement based on the design in the 1970s, and the previously hand-picked F -15's successor F-22 stealth fighter shut down the production line 10 years ago due to a series of messy problems with reliability and maintainability. Now the U.S. Air Force has to mass-produce a modified version of the F-15 fighter jet. Although the F-15EX, as the most advanced F-15 improved multi-purpose fighter, has strong combat capabilities, the F-15 does not have stealth capabilities. In contrast, the Chinese Air Force has been mass-producing heavy-duty stealth fighter jets J-20, and has been fielding troops in batches, which has caused considerable concern to the US military.
The only stealth fighter that the U.S. Air Force currently relies on is the F-35 fighter. This is also the only mass-produced stealth fighter in the West. It is multi-purpose fighter , and more than 800 problems and defects were discovered during the production process of the F-35. This means that it is too early for the F-35 to form a complete combat capability, which is deeply worrying. Because China has extensively upgraded the J-20 fighter jet and mass-produced it on a large scale. The J-20 is a heavy-duty stealth fighter of the Chinese Air Force. It is developed specifically for air combat and has very advanced technology and combat capabilities. In terms of air combat capabilities, the J-20 undoubtedly has a great advantage over the F-35. US media believe that as China may be in an international leading position in the development of key technologies for sixth-generation fighters from artificial intelligence to quantum communications , the United States' sixth-generation aircraft is facing delays. China may It completed the development and mass production of the sixth-generation aircraft ahead of the United States.
Moreover, the sixth-generation aircraft in the United States are also facing the problem of soaring costs. Since the NGAD sixth-generation aircraft project uses many advanced technologies and is independently developed by the U.S. Air Force, unlike the F-35, which can be shared by various countries, research and development costs have led to The cost of NGAD is unbearable. US media believes that NGAD may be several times more expensive than the F-35A stealth fighter currently ordered. The current cost of each US Marine Corps F-35B is about 130 million U.S. dollars. It is the most expensive fighter currently in production because this fighter uses a vertical take-off and landing design, but it is still a "little brother" compared to NGAD. ".
The price of an NGAD will be as high as 300-900 million U.S. dollars. This number is outrageously high, and this price is only the unit price of the bare metal, not counting the accessories and maintenance costs of the fighter. If the total price is added up, the price will be 400 million-1 billion U.S. dollars. or even higher. Huniu believes that such a price is completely unaffordable for the U.S. Air Force. Such expensive fighters will completely bring down the U.S. Air Force.Based on NGAD’s estimated cheapest unit price of US$400 million, basically the cost of one NGAD is almost enough for the Chinese Navy to purchase a 052D large drive. It is no exaggeration to say that this NGAD is an out-and-out gold-eating beast. , such an expensive price that even the US military cannot afford to equip.
Moreover, the maintenance expenditure of NGAD will significantly increase the overall cost of each aircraft and will definitely exceed the bare metal price of the aircraft. This is the case with most of the U.S. Air Force's current fourth- and fifth-generation fighters. If NGAD is too expensive, the total number of US Air Force equipment may even be less than 50. It can be said that the US Air Force is currently facing price and technical problems. If these key issues cannot be solved in time, the hope of the US sixth-generation aircraft to catch up with China will undoubtedly be slim.
