Can the U.S. Navy Build a Sixth-Generation Stealth Fighter?
The race for the next interation of stealth fighters is on as China and Russia pour money into their own future warplanes.
As China and Russia forge ahead with a slew of sixth-generation fighter projects, is the U.S. Air Force (USAF) lagging behind in efforts to develop similar capabilities?
The U.S. military’s nascent sixth-generation fighter ambitions harken back to the late 2000s, just as Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II was entering a turbulent testing and production stage. Launched in 2008, the F/A-XX program identified a need for a new air superiority fighter platform to replace the Navy’s aging stock F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. The Pentagon initially sought to procure a single consolidated platform for both the Navy and Air Force but, given the poor track record of prior joint projects, eventually decided against it. The F/A-XX has since become the Navy’s sixth generation fighter program, while the USAF equ