Sixth generation aircraft, the challenge of the future has already begun

(by Massimiliano D'Elia) Russia, the United States, China and now even Europe with some projects are always competing to equip their armies with increasingly advanced weapons. The supremacy in the military field is one of the main objectives for competing and asserting one's influence in the international arena.

In this context, aeronautics is the most fascinating terrain where the most advanced machines in flight can really make a difference and give “total” supremacy to armies. While we talk and discuss about the actual need for fifth generation aircraft (a demagogic debate that at alternate electoral periods affects Italy for the F-35), in the laboratories of the United States, Russia with the MiG-41, China, Japan with the F-3 fighter, France and Germany with the FACS and England and Italy with the Tempest, the sixth generation are already being studied at a conceptual level. A separate discussion for the United States which has two projects: the "Penetrating Counter-Air”Of the Air Force - a long-range stealth fighter to escort stealth bombers - and the FA-XX of the Navy. So far, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin and Northrop-Grumman have revealed sixth-generation concepts.

One of the reasons for accelerating on the sixth generation is that ground-based air defense systems such as the low-cost Russian S-400 can now threaten large swathes of airspace, stealth aircraft must be able to penetrate "anti-access" bubbles. / denial of area ”and eliminate air defense from a safe distance. Stealth jets drastically outperform non-stealth aircraft in aerial warfare maneuvers in their ability

But what are the criteria, thought up, for the sixth generation?

The goal is autonomous flight, that is to design a machine not managed by people on board but by remote pilots, a tactical evolution of the current Apr aircraft. The study would include an American version without pilot and another Russian with edge.

The American designers are working on a prototype capable of handling a disproportionate number of information with incredible resistance to overloads, only a robot can guarantee this specificity. The Russians, on the other hand, believe that no computer can be able to operate a machine like a human being.

Another feature of these aircraft of the future is low visibility. Today, fifth-generation stealth is apparently not totally immune to Russian S400 air defense systems. Those of the sixth generation will have to be completely invisible.

The next criterion is speed. Today the fastest military aircraft in flight goes to about Mach 3, the development of the sixth generation should be able to exceed the threshold of 5. Cruising speed (without turning on the afterburner thrust), experts say, will certainly be supersonic. Most likely, the cruising speed of the future will be identical to today's post-combustion speed - Mach 1,5-2. The aircraft will be able to fly without refueling for a long time, and then continue to patrol long distances away from its base.

From a structural point of view, experts believe that the aircraft will be very ergonomic.

Credible example is a wing enclosed in the fuselage and will not be equipped with a vertical tail surface. Perhaps the basis of aircraft design is the concept of a “flying wing” (like the futuristic B-2, of the US Air Force).

The aircraft should be easy to maneuver in angles of approximately 60 degrees. The maneuverability allows the fighters to move within the framework of the "missile defense" trajectories. The aircraft with very high maneuverability will not have to fear any missile defense.

Interoperability must be total with the forces of land, sea, air, aerospace, space, cyberspace and even underwater. The myriad of information received from the various command and control centers will have to allow the sixth generation aircraft an absolute dominion of the skies and the sure victory against the adversaries.

The armaments will be supplemented by laser beams. Probably the last machines will be equipped not only with missiles, which are mainly used today, but also with laser installations. It is possible that the weapon will also be electromagnetic. Those kinds of missiles will fly at such a speed that the air defense system cannot keep up with them

The projects for these aircraft of the future take years, many estimate in 10 and 20 years. The interesting aspect is that we already talk about it and some sources say that some prototypes are in an advanced stage of development in the US and Russia.

Existing prototypes and American concept 

The F / A-XX project, developed by Boeing, is believed to be a carrier-based fighter for the United States Navy that can be used in a wide range of combat missions. The prototype was unveiled by Boeing as early as 2008 and exhibited a unique feature for aircraft in the vertical tail. In the cockpit of the aircraft there are two seats for the pilots. Experts believe that one pilot will handle the fighter and the other the unmanned aircraft and armaments.

Boeing he also said the sixth generation aircraft will be for both the Navy and the Air Force and will replace the F-22. The main advantage of the machine will be the very high speed, compared to current aircraft.

Lockheed Martin, another global leader in the industry is developing its own concept of sixth-generation aircraft. The studies are not at an advanced stage like Boeing, but they do know that they will develop studies on an aircraft with the highest degree of integration.

In the US, the serial production date of these aircraft is estimated to be 2030.

European programs 

In July, 2017, at the end of an intergovernmental summit, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced their respective countries' intention to collaborate in the development and production of a new 6 ° fighter plane generation, which is currently called FCAS (Future Combat-Air System). Later, Spain joined the program.

England is working on the  Tempest with a group of companies led by BAE Systems, Italy is in with Leonardo thanks to its factories in England with about 7 thousand employees. The United Kingdom is, however, looking for foreign partners, to give the project a more international scope and for greater burden-sharing, also in view of the economic impact that Brexit will have on the country's budgets. London has therefore forwarded a request for collaboration to India, which has recently accepted Italy, but other countries would also seem plausible candidates for a possible participation, including Japan, Turkey and Sweden.

In this regard, a recent interview with cybernaua.it of the general Pasquale Preziosa clarified the ideas on the future of the defense industry in Europe:

All the European aircraft of the last 50 years, such as Tornado (trinazionale) and Eurofighter (quadrinazionale), have been built and, over time, updated with heavy currency.

For Italy, both aircraft were financed by the Italian Parliament with "ad hoc" laws as in other countries.

The Tempest aircraft, if it were to remain trinational, will follow the fate of its predecessor Tornado, with some negative parametric variation, as well as the FCAS aircraft.

Taking as a benchmark the sum of the national GDPs of the countries participating in the TEMPEST, FCAS, TORNADO and EUROFIGHTER companies, the following elements can be noted:

- the Tornado could count on three countries whose GDP sum was equal to 8,2 trillions of $ (2017 values),

- the Eurofighter could count on a summation of 10,5 $ trillion,

- the FCAS aircraft will have the potential of 7,5 trillions,

- the Tempest aircraft on a trillion 5 potentiality instead.

The financial potential of the two new European fighter planes depart both with a negative financial handicap and with problems of economy of scale due to the limited catchment area.

If the two Tempest and FCAS projects were to be merged into a single aircraft, the financial sustainability could be parameterized to values ​​higher than 12,2 trillions of dollars, equivalent to the Chinese GDP.

By extrapolation, if all the countries of the European Union were to express the same needs, the parameter would lead to 18,5 trillions of dollars, very close to the US parameter equal to 19,4 trillions of dollars.

Italy will play its part in both the financial and technical industrial aspects of the new program and will continuously support the convergence of the programs both for a higher quality of the final product and for a better cost efficiency.

PChinese rogetto

At the moment, China is finalizing the fifth generation fighter. This is the J-20 and J-Air 31. The Chinese designers are not very attracted to long-term programs and, like the Europeans, they are more oriented towards the development of a high-tech drone, which was called Lijian, characterized by low visible to the radar. Based on this development, experts say, there will be a sixth-generation fighter jet.

Japanese prototype

The Japanese designers, based on a number of sources, are involved in the creation of a new hunting class. It is believed that the base for the car is the ATD-X aircraft.

 The Russian concept

The Russian designers seem to be the most active in the study activities of a new sixth-generation aircraft based on the T-50 machine.

The Russian media say that the first prototype of a sixth-generation aircraft, created by engineers from Russia, will appear in the next 10-12 years, by the United Aircraft Corporation. If the estimates are respected, the Russians will surpass the Americans who, instead, have estimated the production not before the 2030.

 

Sixth generation aircraft, the challenge of the future has already begun