The US Air Force secretly designed, built, and flew a new fighter jet – in just one year

IN SEPTEMBER 2020, THE US AIR FORCE REVEALED IT HAD produced a full-scale prototype jet in a staggeringly short period of time. While this process traditionally takes as long as a decade, the service appears to have created and tested the plane in the span of a year. Will Roper, the Air Force’s head of acquisition, told Defense News the branch ‘broke records’ flying the fighter, and said it’s ready to build the aircraft ‘in a way that has never happened before.’ The surprise reveal of the plane’s rapid development is shrouded in mystery. But we can parse the clues.

- KYLE MIZOKAMI

The US Air Force built the new fighter under its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) programme, which aims to produce a jet that would supplement, and perhaps even replace, the F-22 Raptor. The Air Force built 186 Raptors, of which only about 123 thus far are capable of the jet’s full spectrum of combat roles. And at current readiness levels, only around 64 of the fifth-generation fighters are ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

While we don’t know which defence contractor designed and prototyped the new jet, it’s almost certainly one of the big three aerospace giants (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing). We do know the Air Force designed the NGAD to ensure the service’s ‘air dominance’ in future conflicts versus the fighters of potential adversaries. The new fighter, then, is very likely optimised for air-to-air combat. It’s a safe bet the fighter uses off-the-shelf avionics, engines, and weapons borrowed from other aircraft, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and F/A18E/F. In fact, NGAD may look a lot like one of these fighters, though if the Air Force wanted a stealthy design to riff off of, there’s only one (F-35) currently in production.