Author: Wang Rui Source: Aviation Briefing
According to the site after usni 2020 November 9 Journal article, ten years, the US Navy tactical aviation fleet backbone will begin to retire, there is no clear successor. At the beginning of 2020, the US Navy issued a signal to end the F/A-18E/F "Super Hornet" project. It plans to close the production line after 2021 and invest in the next-generation air superiority (NGAD) fighter. After 10 years of repetition, the NGAD project office was established to develop a system or system to replace the weapon carrying capability of the "Super Hornet". When the F-35C fighters of the "Argonauts" combat attack squadron (VFA-147) were deployed with the "Carl Vinson" (CVN-70) aircraft carrier, more than 20 years have passed since the first flight of the X-35C fighters. U.S. Secretary of Naval Operations, General Mike Gildi, stated that the F-35C fighter jets should not be repeated in the fleet after 20 years. If manned carrier fighters are worthwhile, they should enter the fleet in a shorter time.
Considering the time when the F-35 was put into use, Gildi was more cautious about the sixth-generation tactical aviation (TACAIR), stating that “if you invest in capabilities other than the F-35 in the next-generation tactical aviation, then its development and delivery will also A fundamental change must occur, otherwise it will not be worth the investment."
Gildi is optimistic about the future of the unmanned aviation system of the carrier-based aircraft wing. He revealed that the U.S. Navy is currently conducting research and development work on the highly classified next-generation carrier-based aircraft wing. Unmanned systems are the focus of attention; he himself is also a strong supporter of unmanned systems.
Gildy is dissatisfied with the current status of the development of unmanned systems in the naval aviation department, thinking that it has fallen behind other naval departments. If you want to score, the underwater is B-, the surface is B-, and the air may be C- or worse. He specifically mentioned that from the landing of the X-47B aircraft carrier unmanned aerial vehicle demonstration aircraft (UCAS-D) on the "George Bush" (CVN-77) in 2013 to the MQ-25A "Stingray" unmanned refueling in 2019 There is a 7-year gap between the first flights. In addition to the early delivery and large-scale equipment of the MQ-25, Gildi also emphasized that some basic questions about the successor of the Navy’s “Super Hornet” have not yet been answered. Among them, “will manned aircraft be used for air-to-air combat in 2045? "It's a big problem. "In his view, "If it really enters the manned sixth generation, its development and delivery progress must also be much better than the fifth generation. ”Z1z
