Key Points – The US Navy’s F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter program is deemed crucial for regaining “overmatch” against China in the Pacific, where current capabilities are described as being at parity.
-The F/A-XX, intended as the successor to the F/A-18E/F and F-35C, promises significantly increased operational range (projected over 750nm combat radius), enhanced stealth, greater payload capacity, and advanced features including open architecture, drone control, and superior data fusion.
F/A-XX. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-With a contract decision between Boeing and Northrop Grumman pending, accelerating this program is considered vital for the future effectiveness of US carrier strike groups and maintaining naval air dominance.
The F/A-XX Fighter Challenge
In the U.S. military’s race to stay ahead of China, naval aviation is only breaking even. To pull ahead, the United States Navy is counting on its secret new stealth fighter and attack plane for aircraft carriers known as F/A-XX.
A decision is urgent. In the Pacific, the Navy does not have overmatch against China. Carrier air wings operate, but “we do it at parity because of the capabilities we have fielded today,” Rear Admiral Michael Donnelly, Director of Navy Air Warfare Division (N98), said on April 7. “So, F/A-XX is going to be that next improvement.”
No wonder the House Armed Services Committee just added $500 million to the Reconciliation Bill to “accelerate F/A-XX.” To boost the program, it’s time for the Navy to stop delaying and award the contract to one of the two remaining contenders, either Boeing or Northrop Grumman.
A new Navy fighter is overdue. It’s been 30 years since the F/A-18EF Superhornet first flew in November 1995 and fifteen years since the first flight of the stealth F-35C in 2010. Both aircraft operate 24/7 against the Houthis and other threats in the Middle East while embarked on the aircraft carriers USS Harry S. Truman and the USS Carl Vinson.
Over a decade ago, the Navy accurately read China’s military development and began preparing for an air battle at extended ranges. Although the details are classified, public remarks by the Navy suggest that F/A-XX will be a larger, stealthier aircraft that will carry more payload and provide a step-function increase in the range, lethality, and survivability of U.S. carrier air wings. Secretary of the Navy John Phelan testified that the F/A-XX will offer “significant advancements in operational reach and capacity within contested environments, intended to enable Carrier Strike Groups to outpace adversaries while maintaining naval air dominance.”
F/A-XX must also incorporate other features of Sixth-Generation aircraft, which are sometimes overlooked. At the top of the list is a modular, open-systems architecture that can be upgraded rapidly by the Navy to meet emerging requirements in years ahead should be. Expect the F/A-XX to depend more on advanced carbon fiber composites – which must be made in the USA – replacing metal in selected aircraft structures to allow for advanced shaping. Of course, the F/A-XX will have offensive and defensive electronic warfare systems that will help ensure weapons delivery in contested zones.
F/A-XX. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
However, more range is the stand-out requirement.
China’s longer-range PL-15 and PL-17 missiles have pushed engagement envelopes outward. At the same time, China’s modified H-6 bombers have been flying aggressive missions over the Pacific for years. “The ability to be able to engage the H-6 before any weapon release will be a U.S. Navy priority, a fight that during the latter years of the Cold War was known as the ‘outer air battle,” noted IISS analyst Douglas Barrie.
The Navy has been here before. Back in its day, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat revolutionized the air battle in part because its AN/AWG-9 X-band tracking systems could detect multiple targets out to 150 nm. Dominating the outer air battle was a major tactical concept in the 1980s, when the U.S. Navy carriers ranged against Backfire bombers of the USSR and their anti-ship cruise missiles. The F-14, carrying six AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missiles, was designed to intercept and engage high-altitude Soviet bombers 90 miles away from the carriers.
The China battle involving the F/A-XX will be much more complex, with the carriers performing deep strikes, quarterbacking combat drones, and nailing any Chinese missiles, planes, and drones seeking a long-range kill on U.S. assets.
This is why the Navy has invested in range. Donnelly has said that the F/A-XX will have about 125% of the range of current fighters. While a 25% increase may not sound like a big mathematical leap, it actually makes a significant difference when planning combat missions. Consider the estimate of about 600 nm combat radius for today’s F-35C and F/A-18EF. If the increase is 25%, then the F/A-XX unrefueled combat radius is greater than 750 nm. This gives aircraft carriers another 150 miles of maneuvering room. Combat radius depends on mission altitudes and profiles, weapons loadouts, aerial refueling, and much more. But there is no question the F/A-XX can range far beyond the Tomcats and set a new standard in data fusion while doing so.
Take the example of the SM-6 on the Superhornet. Last summer, the Navy released images of the SM-6/AIM-174B being carried by the Superhornet, which some estimate may have a 250 nm range. Now add the 25% range increase of the F/A-XX, and the tactical advantages grow.
The MQ-25 Stingray unmanned refueling and sensor drone entering Navy service next year can be right alongside the F/A-XX, delivering fuel as needed. However, the key point is that the Ford-class aircraft carriers will be able to launch F/A-XXs from a much wider swathe of the ocean, increasing the maneuver room for the carrier under combat conditions.
Range can also enable the Navy to pick up the “quarterback” role with drones like the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft. According to Phelan, the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force are collaborating closely to ensure interoperability through shared enabling technologies like autonomy, mission systems, and communication architectures with combat drones. Look for F/A-XX to set a new standard in data fusion to go after enemy targets across all domains.
Careful stewardship of the F/A-XX program will be essential given China’s accelerated technical developments. The House is right to push the Navy to accelerate. With China on track to build six aircraft carriers of its own, F/A-XX will be a mainstay of security across Indo-Pacom and the globe.
About the Author:
Dr. Rebecca Grant, a Vice President at the Lexington Institute, is a national security analyst based in Washington, DC, specializing in defense and aerospace research and national security consulting. She has over 20 years experience working with the United States Air Force, United States Navy, and top aerospace clients. In addition, Dr. Grant has often appeared on television as an expert on national security for Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, and MSNBC and as a series regular on The Smithsonian’s Air Warriors.
