The
F-35 Lightning and F-22 Raptor fifth generation fighters are among the
most technologically advanced aircraft in history but the fact that
they're barely out of testing (more than can be said about their Russian and Chinese
counterparts) doesn't mean the US military isn't already designing an
even better sixth generation. These next gen war-fighters will be able
to fly farther, faster and fight smarter with advanced weapons systems
and maybe even self-healing skin.
This isn't
like the artificially-manufactured breakneck upgrade pace of smart
phones and tablets, mind you. The Navy needs to find a replacement for
its aging fleet of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets
and E/ A-18G Growlers, which are expected to hit their 9000h useful
lifespan limit sometime around 2025. And while the new F-35 is an ideal
replacement for the F/A-18 Hornet, its big brother, the F/A-18E/F Super
Hornet, requires equipment and capability loadouts that the F-35 simply
can't muster.
As such,
the Navy issued a Request For Information—an open invite to aerospace
companies to submit aircraft concepts, either "new design aircraft" or
"concepts derived from legacy aircraft," in response to specific
performance criteria—in 2012. Per the RFI,
The intent of this research is to solicit industry inputs on candidate solutions for CVN [nuclear-powered aircraft carrier] based aircraft to provide air supremacy with a multi-role strike capability in an anti-access/area denied (A2AD) operational environment. Primary missions include, but are not limited to, air warfare (AW), strike warfare (STW), surface warfare (SUW), and close air support (CAS).
In
addition, the aircraft must be able to operate from Nimitz and
Ford-class carriers as well as operate both with and without a pilot and
"will have to counter adversaries equipped with next generation
advanced electronic attack, sophisticated integrated air defense
systems, passive detection, integrated self-protection, directed energy
weapons and cyber attack capabilities." Basically, the Navy wants it to
be immune to every conceivable threat outside of The Rapture while
exploiting the electromagnetic spectrum in its favor.
"We need it
to have advanced sensors, be more transitional and provide access into
the anti-access, area-denial environment," rear Adm. Donald Gaddis,
program executive officer for tactical aircraft at Naval Air Systems
Command, told Aviation Week.
"We're asking industry what this aircraft might have in terms of
tanking, airborne electronic attack, ISR [intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance] and suppression of enemy air defenses."
Boeing and
Lockheed Martin have both submitted proposals for consideration.
Lockheed's conceptual suggestions include a higher top speed, greater
range, improved stealth capabilities, and even a self-healing exterior.
If, for example, the F/A-XX takes enemy fire, a two part epoxy-hardening
agent putty would be automatically extruded to scab over the bullet
holes and keep the aircraft airborne. Unlike the rubber bladder lined
fuel tanks from WWII (the bladder would expand when the tank ruptured to
plug the hole), this system would be similar to those developed at the
University of Illinois' Autonomous Materials Systems Research Group
which "bleed" liquid solvent into structural cracks or those from
Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Bristol in
England which instead uses composite-filled glass microtubules. All
Lockheed needs to do now is invent such a system.
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