FA-XX - The Next American Fighter Jet

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For years, the US has been very dominant in the air with it’s battle proven fighters like F-15, F-16 and F-18 along with the king of the skies, and for a long time, the only 5th generation fighter in service, the F-22.

There simply wasn’t a serious answer to the US 5th generation of fighter jets from any other competitor on the market up until recent years.

Now, after the troublesome development of the F-35 fighter, US is looking to move above and beyond the competition, and by that I mean, completely new generation of fighters.

Meet the Next generation air dominance fighter, the jet fighter of the future!

The U.S. became the first country to introduce an operational 5th-generation fighter when it did so with the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor in 2005.

There was one thing that truly set the fifth generation of fighter jets apart from the fourth generation - stealth.

That is why stealth capabilities are central to the design philosophy of the F-22 Raptor. These aircraft prioritised stealth from day one rather than seeking ways to reduce radar signature once all aerodynamic and engineering development had been done.

The result was a multirole fighter that would be able to do hit and run missions behind enemy lines and with either no or minimal losses complete it’s mission goals striking critical enemy targets in either air or on the ground. These fighter jets also included active electronic scanning array radars and engines that are powerful enough to cruise above the speed of sound without the need for afterburners.

A downside of firth-generation aircraft, however, is that, although they’re able to carry weapons and fuel externally should the need arise, that doing that instantly makes them less stealthy. And without full-on stealth capabilities, these aircraft could literally be considered more sleek-looking versions of fourth generation jets. And that’s a major let-down.

As already stated, a sixth generation or class of fighter jets was inevitable,

There is an understanding that aerial combat of the future will have less of an emphasis on one-on-one dogfights or even brute aerial superiority.


Rather, the focus and role of the new jet would be a part of an integrated system of manned and unmanned aircraft, ground troops, satellites or AWACS aircraft depending on the nature of the task at hand.

The idea behind the integration of manned and unmanned aircraft is that there would be only one pilot operating 2 or more aircraft at a time. UAV would not be controlled from the ground and the AI would be able to perform basic tasks commanded by the pilot, while the pilot would be able to focus on mission priority objectives with drones either providing recon, support or drawing enemy resources and fire letting the pilot slip unnoticed or at least face smaller and softer threat while performing its mission.

One of these drones could be XQ-58 Valkyrie or the Loyal Wingman, that we previously covered on the channel.

Integral to this digital sophistication will be the use of virtual cockpits. With these, pilots will view their control panels via helmet-mounted displays or HMDs, which will afford a pilot 360-degree vision with AI-enhanced battlefield awareness. Technology already being implemented in F-35.

They might also implement some other technology currently in development, like the airborne high energy beam weapons, or simply said lasers. And no, this is not a joke or some sci-fi because the airborne laser platforms have been in development ever since the Cold war with the best examples being Soviet Beriev A-60 and US Boeing YAL-1. More on them in some of the future videos.

Implementation of these weapons could be either for the protection of the aircraft, or even for tactical purposes like blinding the enemy sensors, satellites and other.

Apart from all those, the multirole 6th gen aircraft will still have to tick all the boxes defined by the previous generation, like the stealth capability, supersonic speed without afterburners and the ability to strike multiple targets at a time.

So what actually will be the 6th generation jet?