F/A-XX: The U.S. Navy’s Future? The first-of-its-kind carrier-launched 5th-generation F-35C is here, but in small numbers. The F/A-18 Super Hornet has been a combat workhorse for decades and has already outlived its expected service life through years of successful upgrades.
So how will the Navy meet advanced great power threats from the ocean in the coming decades? The answer to this question has been clearly and decisively answered by the Navy. The 6th-Gen F/A-XX carrier-launched stealth fighter, a now-in-development next-generation platform, is expected to blast onto the scene in coming years.
The Air Force’s 6th-gen Next Generation Air Dominance jet is already airborne, although little to nothing is known about it for obvious security reasons, but what about the Navy’s 6th Gen? Similarly, we hear very little about this for obvious reasons as well, yet there is a clear “need” and clear Navy emphasis being placed on the effort.
An interesting Navy document released in 2021 called the “Navy Aviation Vision 2030 – 2035” makes the unambiguous statement that the Navy’s F/A-XX NGAD aircraft will not only be a “family of systems” but also replace the Super Hornet as it moves into the 2030s.
“Its specific capabilities and technologies are under development, however analysis shows it must have longer range and greater speed, incorporate passive and active sensor technology, and possess the capability to employ the longer-range weapons programmed for the future,” the text of the Navy document states.
Intended as a new “strike fighter” to complement and fly alongside the F-35C, the new 6th-gen aircraft will likely be stealthy, AI-enabled, much faster than an F/A-18 or even F-35C, yet its largest margin of difference may reside in its ability to incorporate paradigm-changing, unprecedented new innovations. The new plane or planes will likely fire hypersonic weapons, operate as manned or unmanned autonomous aircraft and certainly leverage manned-unmanned teaming and new generations of sensing, weaponry and networking technologies.
Interestingly, the Navy text makes the point that the new sea-launched 6th-generation aircraft will specifically enable continued aircraft carrier operations in high-threat areas. Perhaps this means the new F/A-XX will operate like an improved F-22-like air dominance platform from the sea, able to help establish air superiority for an entire Carrier Air Wing to follow. Certainly, an advanced platform of this kind would bring new dimensions of “power-projection” to maritime warfare and possibly open up an “air corridor” for heavily armed, yet less stealthy platforms to attack.
“The advanced carrier based power projection capabilities resident in F/A-XX will maintain CVN relevance in advanced threat environments,” the Navy strategy document states.
Air supremacy over the oceans?
Air superiority at sea would certainly prove critical in the event that airspace above Carrier Strike Groups were too far offshore for F-22s or other land-based 5th-generation fighters to reach. For instance, should an F/A-XX be stealthy enough and fast enough to destroy enemy aircraft and also disable enemy radar and air defenses, then Carrier Strike Groups would be much better positioned to overcome China’s often-discussed anti-access/area-denial strategy.
In particular, if 6th-generation aircraft were able to operate in small groups or as a family of stealthy manned and unmanned systems, they could provide forward surveillance and potential identify launch sites for China’s highly touted Carrier-Killer missiles such as the DF-26 reportedly able to strike carriers at ranges of 2,000 miles.
Operating as aerial “nodes” or forward reconnaissance, 6th generation carrier-launched aircraft could use stealth, speed and networking to detect and potentially even intercept attacking anti-ship missiles.
This kind of tactical ability would of course be brought to fruition through new dimensions of networking technology wherein multiple platforms could gather, organize and transmit time-sensitive intelligence and targeting data across multiple domains at great distances. Newer applications of AI, coupled with breakthrough transport layer technologies such as optical-communication, encrypted RF signals or newly hardened datalinks. Most of all otherwise disparate or disconnected platforms are increasingly being built with interfaces and the kind of technical infrastructure sufficient to support cross-domain interoperability.
Expert Biography
Kris Osborn is the Military Affairs Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
