Outclass Its Competition

How America's new fighter will

- By Alex Hollings. Illustration by Rodrigo Avella

As China and Russia inch closer to rivalling America's top fighters, the US Air Force is on the hunt for a new jet. Dubbed the Next-Generation Air Dominance programme (NGAD), this effort is intended to replace America's hobbled fleet of F-22 air superiority fighters. While maintenance records indicate that just 33 F-22s are flight-ready at any given time today, China's fleet of Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragons is estimated to number around 50 aircraft, and Russia's fleet of Sukhoi Su-57 Felons is growing, expected to reach 76 planes by 2028. America's air supremacy is at risk.

The J-20 and the Su-57 are stealth fighters designed for the contested airspace of a near-peer war. Most modern fighters specialise: America's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter serves a primary ground-attack role, while the F-22 Raptor is considered an air superiority fighter. Details are scarce regarding the sixth-generation NGAD fighter, but it will likely boast awe-inspiring capabilities that improve upon or offset the advancements of the previous generation, including the J-20 and Su-57. Examining the NGAD's competition provides clues as to what the new plane might bring to the table. The US Air Force's next jet can't just compete with these fighters. It has to exceed them.

1 STEALTH

Stealth's series of overlapping technologies, production methods, and combat tactics is about surviving contested airspace, not becoming invisible. While some fourth-generation fighters leveraged topical treatments like radar-absorbent coating to delay detection, the Su-57 and J-20 were designed with stealth in mind from the ground up. The NGAD aircraft will thus have to lean into new technologies to make it harder to detect than any fighter before it.