Key Points and Summary: As the US Air Force develops its NGAD 6th-gen fighter, speculation is already mounting about what a 7th-generation aircraft might look like.
-Could it feature hypersonic speeds, spaceflight capabilities, and AI-driven autonomy?
-Advances in directed energy weapons and missile defense could allow a future stealth jet to track and destroy ICBMs mid-flight.
7th Generation Fighter Concept: A Glimpse Into the Future of Aerial Warfare
As the secretive Next Gen Air Dominance (NGAD) 6th-gen aircraft takes flight, and the Air Force fast-tracks supportive drones called Combat Collaborative Aircraft, few might be inclined to consider the prospect of a 7th generation fighter.
This may seem beyond the scope of current thinking. Yet, it’s likely someone at the Pentagon is thinking about this and working on concepts of operation to support an entirely new generation of stealth fighters to emerge beyond the 2050s. Sure enough, some key technological barriers are yet to be broken, which invites speculation regarding the realm of the possible 7th-generation.
Could it manage manned hypersonic flight, space travel, generative AI, and new, unprecedented dimensions of stealth?
It would be nothing short of spectacular to envision a manned hypersonic stealthy jet capable of transiting beyond and within the earth’s atmosphere to conduct secret attacks, perform otherwise impossible surveillance missions, or even engage in space warfare should that become necessary
War in Space for a 7th Generation Fighter?
As much as the Pentagon hoped space would remain a sanctuary for collaborative multi-national exploration, United States rivals have long weaponized the domain. This has inspired the creation of a US Space Force and the necessary task of preparing the US military for offensive and defensive space war.
A manned hypersonic stealth jet, able to exit and then return to the earth’s atmosphere, could likely perform unprecedented missile defense operations and, if needed, destroy enemy satellites. With the appropriate speed, networking, and targeting technology, it seems entirely conceivable that a manned hypersonic space fighter could track and intercept or destroy enemy ICBMs transiting through space during its mid-course phase.
Perhaps stealth fighter-jet laser weapons will be possible by this point as the Air Force Research Laboratory continues to work on miniaturizing expeditionary electrical power sources sufficient to incinerate ICBMs in space.
Lasers for Missile Defense
I’d be surprised if this were not currently being explored because, with proper high-speed networking with satellites and ground sensors, a laser-armed fighter might be able to maneuver into position to see, track, and destroy traveling ICBMs or even hypersonic weapons.
Ideally, it would need to align with or network with “kill vehicles” now being engineered with advanced seekers capable of discerning decoys and debris from actual ICBMs. Raytheon, for example, is working on several exo-atmospheric kill vehicle sensors that can pinpoint ICBMs from a cluttered space environment to perform intercepts.
Imagine if these countermeasures and missile defense technologies were fortified by and connected with hypersonic, laser-armed manned fighter jets capable of receiving target detail and destroying enemy threats.
The MDA is already working on the kind of “power-scaling” necessary to use surface and land-fired weapons to essentially “burn a hole” through the metal of an enemy ICBM.
Human Hypersonics
A manned hypersonic jet may seem too far beyond the realm of the possible, given the difficulty humans would have “surviving” the heat of hypersonic travel. However, was the idea of this presented by Hollywood in Maverick with the DarkStar?
NGAD artist concept from Northrop Grumman.
Perhaps, but that does not mean the technology is here. Could cooling technology or protective gear emerge so that humans can survive hypersonic speeds?
If not, a 7th-generation attack stealth fighter might be fully unmanned, as very high levels of autonomy already exist. Unmanned fighter jets can fully maneuver without human intervention and have also outperformed manned jets in some simulated dogfights.
Nevertheless, there are doubtless many elements of human cognition, emotion, intuition and other more subjective variables which mathematically-derived computer algorithms cannot replicate.
What would 7th generation stealth look like? Perhaps further miniaturization of sensors, computers, and weapons enables a much smaller and stealthier platform to achieve the same or greater level of lethality.
China NGAD 6th Generation Fighter. Image Credit: Chinese Social Media.
About the Author: Kris Osborn
Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in 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.
