Sandboxx does a terrific overview of the problems inherent in this. While I have beaten the drum on the inherent challenges of emerging problems in Revolutions in Military Affairs throughout the 21st century, no one at the Pentagon is paying attention as they leap onto an acquisition merry-go-round that creates more problems than solutions.
NGAD is Next Generation Air Dominance.
Here’s the bottom line: in this era, the time of the manned combat aircraft has ended.
Hollings makes a compelling case.
CW Lemoine does a terrific overview of these problems also.
Per Mr. Lemoine’s observation, “clean sheet designs” have become impossible under the US defense acquisition regime.
More of the same.
U.S. Air Force officials paused a planned contract award for the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) to rethink the aircraft’s requirements. NGAD is an advanced fighter jet intended to replace the stealthy F-22 Raptor (see Figure 1). According to the Air Force, NGAD is also a “family of systems,” enabling air superiority, defined as the ability to operate without threat of attack, even in highly contested environments. The NGAD family or system of systems includes the NGAD fighter program, as well as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program to develop variants of uncrewed, semiautonomous aircraft that could fly as “loyal wingmen” with the NGAD fighter or other fighter aircraft. (See CRS In Focus IF12740, U.S. Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA).) The Biden Administration requested $2.75 billion for research and development for an Air Force NGAD platform and $557 million for CCA in FY2025. Congress may decide to accept, reject, or modify this request.
https://news.usni.org/2025/01/20/report-to-congress-on-u-s-air-force-next-generation-air-dominance-fighter
