The Air Force and the Defense Department have taken preliminary steps toward developing a sixth generation fighter aircraft concept with a study and investments detailed in President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2016 budget request.
Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Plans and Requirements Lt. Gen. James Holmes said the service is commissioning a study looking at “air superiority 2030,” part of an effort to avoid simply building upon fifth generation aircraft like the F-22 and F-35. Holmes said the Air Force and DoD want to examine a range of capabilities to draw from, including cyber and space, ground, and maritime systems, without jumping straight to an air solution.
“We just don’t want to jump straight to the AoA (analysis of alternatives) on the next airplane before we’ve looked across the range of ways to do it in the future,” Holmes told reporters at the Pentagon Friday.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has invested in the air superiority 2030 study, Holmes said, and DoD will make additional investments, though he didn’t specify how much. DARPA did not respond to a request for comment by press time Monday. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said Monday the classified “air superiority 2030” study is expected to be completed late 2015/early 2016 and will be classified, though the service may examine for any aspects that it can discuss in a broad, unclassified sense.
The Air Force wants to pursue the Next-Generation Turbine Engine Test Capability (NGTETC) as part of a $54 million request in its FY ’16 budget. NGTETC will meet sixth generation turbine engine emerging test requirements by implementing a test capability AoA for supporting needs like exhaust cooler, venture upgrades, cluster valves, compressor in-bleeds, exhaust expansion joints, exhaust sprays and thermal and power management. The Air Force said in its request that the cooler, venture, cluster valve and expansion joint upgrades need to be completed by FY ’18.
Aircraft engines for a specific generation are designed to be paired with that generation’s aircraft. Teal Group Vice President of Analysis Richard Aboulafia said Monday though it is not inconceivable that a sixth generation engine could be paired with older generation aircraft, there are no historical examples of inter-generational re-engining. It depends heavily on the design parameters of the new engine, he said, and the engine might need heavy modifications. Aboulafia said there was once a proposed F-16 variant with an older generation J79 engine.
The Air Force also requested $4 million to continue a program that, two years ago, developed concepts for protection of postulated future threats to sixth generation aircraft, including definition of component and subsystem requirements. Known as electro-optical (EO)/infrared (IR) warning and countermeasures technology, the program analyzes the vulnerabilities of current IR missile systems and future imaging sensors.
The Air Force in FY ’16 wants to use the program to continue the characterization and exploitation of advanced threat IR guided missiles and EO/IR fire-control systems and sensors. It also wants to develop high-fidelity surrogates, scene generation and modeling and simulation for testing and countermeasure development and verification/correlation to hardware in the loop results.
Holmes said Air Force analysis shows stealth is necessary (on a sixth generation aircraft) for modern integrated air defense system, but may not be enough. The Air Force, he said, will focus on IR profile, among others, when evaluating capabilities and requirements for its sixth generation aircraft. Holmes said while people tend to focus on the reduced radar cross section portion of stealth technology, an entire spectrum including electromagnetic emissions to IR profile and even visual profile go along with stealth.