As the outside world speculates that the number of J-20 equipment in my country has exceeded 150, the United States has recently begun to talk about the development progress of the country's "sixth generation" fighter , and has given a timetable for the US Air Force to officially deploy the "next generation air-optimized fighter" around 2030. It also claims that the "sixth generation" fighter jets in the United States will not only be limited to manned, but will also launch an unmanned version that can command drone groups to fight together. The United States also believes that although the development speed of the J-20 project exceeds its expectations, China cannot become the world's first country to serve sixth-generation aircraft before the United States - is this statement reasonable?
In fact, the US Air Force has never used the title of "sixth generation". Their selected model for the successor of F-22 is officially called "Next Generation Air Optimal Fighter", with the English abbreviation of NGAD. But unlike the F-22 project, the so-called "next-generation air-optimized fighter" has not come up with a mature standard since the concept was proposed. However, the US Air Force's basic requirements for the "sixth generation" fighter jet have always been clear: it has greatly surpassed the "five-generation" fighter jet of . In 2020, senior U.S. military officials also claimed that they had successfully conducted a demonstration aircraft test flight of the "next generation air-optimal fighter", although this statement did not release any pictures or evidence.
But since the United States officially released information on the capability requirements of the "sixth generation" fighter as early as 2010, marking the launch of the development plan for the sixth generation fighter of the United States. Later, traditional arms giants such as the United States, including , Boeing , Lockheed Mart, and Norg, all proposed their own sixth-generation aircraft solutions. Therefore, by 2020, the news that the United States announced the test flight of the first sixth-generation aircraft demonstration aircraft was not questioned. After all, after 10 years of research and development, wouldn’t it be too embarrassing if it didn’t even make a fly demonstration aircraft? At the same time, US intelligence also shows that China's sixth-generation fighter project will be put into service in 2035. It can be speculated that it will fly for the first time from at least 2026 to 2028 - this is very close to the time when the United States plans to deploy in 2030!
But in fact, the progress of the US "next generation air-optimized fighter" project is not going smoothly. The next generation fighter , which was originally planned to be deployed in actual combat in 2030, was discovered by the US media that it has not officially entered the engineering, manufacturing and development stage (EMD). It can be said that except for the demonstration aircraft in 2020, no prototype has been unveiled yet! After all, according to the US calculation method of China's sixth-generation aircraft project, if the US Air Force wants to enter the sixth-generation aircraft in 2030, it must at least produce the "next-generation air-optimal fighter" that can fly for the first time in 2023. However, there is no sign that the US Air Force can conduct such test flights next year. You should know that various satellites and s are flying all over the sky. Not only are the military satellites of major countries in space, but there are also a large number of commercial satellites with good performance. Therefore, the confidentiality work of the test flight of new US Air Force aircraft is no longer as strict as it was decades ago.
0 Mysterious aircraft satellite picture that appeared in District 51 in January 2022
This is not the case, although the senior US military leaders did not release any pictures or evidence in 2020 that they tested a "next generation air-optimal fighter" demonstration aircraft, then in 2022, a commercial satellite released pictures of a "next generation air-optimal fighter" suspected to have been tested at that time. This also proves that it would be difficult for the US Air Force to build the prototype of the "next-generation Air Optimal Fighter" under absolutely confidentiality! Similarly, it is difficult for us to make the outside world ignorant before the first flight of China. This can be seen from the news that foreign media used commercial satellite images to expose some of our new military aircraft, warships, and base construction. Especially for locations like test flight and manufacturers that are focused on satellites in various countries, it is impossible for us to achieve test flights without leaking secrets.
0 The mysterious aircraft satellite picture that became a flying in the first half of 2021
Therefore, although the two countries are not transparent in the development progress of the revolutionary "sixth generation" fighter, they can judge the real progress of the project through unsecured test flights and field tests. 2023 and 2026 are the key time nodes for the "sixth generation" fighter jets of the two countries. As for whether we can see the first flight of the United States' "next-generation air-optimal fighter jets" as scheduled, it is still impossible to predict now - after all, NASA's rocket launch has been postponed one after another. It can be said that the United States has encountered a "bottleneck" in the field of high technology today, and comprehensive projects such as the "sixth generation" fighter jets that cover a large number of extremely advanced technologies are also very likely to fail or develop progress significantly exceed the deadline. Therefore, in the competition for the "sixth generation" fighter jets, which country in China and the United States can successfully fly first is really a "metaphysics"!
