07 APRIL, 2016 . BY: JAMES
DREW- WASHINGTON DC
The US Air Force
will begin an extensive campaign of prototyping and experimentation relating to
new air superiority technologies, including new aircraft types, after
completing a wide-ranging examination of future air battle concepts and
weaponry.
According to service officials,
there’s no “silver bullet” or “exquisite” next-generation fighter jet that will
single-handedly evade and counter the types of surface-to-air, air-to-air,
anti-satellite, electronic attack and cyber threats that are springing up around
the world, particularly if going up against a nuclear-armed state like Russia
or China.
Instead, the air force will
proceed with many parallel technology development efforts, like new propulsion
systems, airframes, directed energy weapons and hypersonic missiles, to develop
a “family of systems” – including longer-range, higher-payload platforms to
launch volleys of weapons at targets from “standoff” distances and others that
will swoop in for direct attacks.
US
forces might someday face increasingly sophisticated Chinese fighters like the
Chengdu J-20 and
Shenyang J-31
Shenyang J-31
Lt Gen James “Mike” Holmes, USAF
deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and requirements, says his team is
moving away from terms like “fighter” and “next-generation” and will instead
look at completely different ways of doing air warfare in the future.
His personal ambition would be
to have an “operationally representative configuration” of this future air
superiority network in place by 2025. The service has even delayed by one year
its F-X or Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) analysis of alternatives to
avoid ending up with requirements for another generation of fighter.
“F-X would have been most likely
like a sixth-generation fighter and would have had a 20 or 30-year development
programme,” Holmes said at an Air Force Association forum in Washington DC on 7
April. “What we want to try to do is solve the problem faster than that by
looking out across the range of options and building what we’re capable of
building instead of waiting for the next generation.”
Northrop Grumman's future fighter
concept
For the past year, an air force
“enterprise capability collaboration team” has been processing over 1,500
submissions from 14 organisations on 220 different initiatives related to
achieving air superiority in 2030.
Of those submissions, almost
half proposed new equipment, while others pushed modernisation of existing
hardware, new battle concepts or tactics, techniques and procedures.
Based on that information, the
air force has concluded that only a highly networked collection of weapon
systems will be capable of tackling future threats, not just one or two new
platforms with long development cycles. By contrast, it has taken more than 16
years for the service to produce its first war-ready combat squadron of
Lockheed Martin F-35As, and the F-22 also took longer than planned.
The F-35 isn't outdated, says
Holmes, but the technology demanded was so complex that "it took longer
than we hoped to achieve".
“Exquisite capabilities ended up
being late-to-need,” says USAF chief of strategic planning and integration Col
Alex Grynkewich, who led the Air Superiority 2030 effort. “This generational
paradigm is outdated. We needed that integrated network of capabilities; there is
no silver bullet.”
Grynkewich says range and
payload are critical, but some studies show that speed, manoeuvrability and
some level of low-observable shaping or stealth still have their place.
There’s also a place for
automation and human-machine teaming, through concepts like “loyal wingman”
that pair manned and unmanned combat jets.
USAF officials won't rule out
derivatives of the Northrop B-21
Grynkewich also wants to
operationalise combat-focused space and cyber forces, since cyber warfare is
now a weapon of war and because so many weapon systems rely on vulnerable space
assets.
Money has been included in the
air force's fiscal year 2017 budget to begin advance prototype efforts, but
some members of the family of systems are already under development or being
matured.
Holmes says a meeting will be
convened with US Air Force Materiel Command leadership in May to examine ways
of moving faster through the acquisition process. USAF will also involve rapid
acquisition organisations within US Special Operations Command as well as its
secretive Big Safari office.
The planning chiefs did not rule
out building derivatives of existing aircraft or even the Northrop Grumman B-21
bomber. Modest investments will also be made to upgrade and life-extending
fourth-generation aircraft and modernise the F-22 Raptor.
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