Breaking: Boeing wins the US Air Force Next Generation Air Dominance fighter contract

[F-22Raptor]

The YF-42 and YF-44 will operate with F-47s as air-air missile carriers as part of Increment 1 CCAs.

 

[NGAD IS THE BEST]

I said: The F47 is more like a copy of the J-20 without the tail.

You think like a three-year-old.

May I say your J20 is ripoff of LOCKHEED MARTIN design that is identical to J20 in 90s in early JSF project

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

May I say your J20 is ripoff of LOCKHEED MARTIN design that is identical to J20 in 90s in early JSF project

This thread has rambled too much. Has it covered reports on TWZ that demonstrator jets were flying as early 2019 with the other in 2022? That's a minimum of 6 years since the first flight with that design likely having been in development easily 5-10 years earlier.

That said, TWZ even states they don't know which plane flew first. Each air frame has several hundred hours on it. That's a lot of data that has been gathered and refinements / improvements made.

I suspect the US NGAD program is further ahead than what we know based on what has been released.

 

[Ali_Baba]

This thread has rambled too much. Has it covered reports on TWZ that demonstrator jets were flying as early 2019 with the other in 2022? That's a minimum of 6 years since the first flight with that design likely having been in development easily 5-10 years earlier.

That said, TWZ even states they don't know which plane flew first. Each air frame has several hundred hours on it. That's a lot of data that has been gathered and refinements / improvements made.

I suspect the US NGAD program is further ahead than what we know based on what has been released.

There is a claim that they have been flying for years but no proof, so all we have to go on is comments from people.

 

[NGAD IS THE BEST]

There is a claim that they have been flying for years but no proof, so all we have to go on is comments from people.

Ever heard Aera- 51 or Edward air force base aka plant 42 top secret military testing grounds

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

There is a claim that they have been flying for years but no proof, so all we have to go on is comments from people.

I will say it again: there was at least one squadron of F-117s operating well before the Nighthawk was announced to the public.

 

[Shanlung]

Nevermind about the NGAD.
How much longer can F35s or any other Fs USA having can still continue to fly?

Or perhaps NGADs dont need no rare earths to fly and fight at all!!

 

[F-22Raptor]

 

[F-22Raptor]

‘No smoke and mirrors’ with Boeing’s NGAD win, executive says​

AVALON AIR SHOW — Despite a recent history of of struggles with Pentagon programs, Boeingis confident that years of secretive development work have put the aerospace giant on solid footing to build a next-gen fighter for the US Air Force, the company’s interim defense chief said in his first official comments with reporters since winning the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) effort.

“We’ve been flying a prototype for quite some time,” Steve Parker, Boeing’s interim defense unit CEO, said in a Tuesday briefing with reporters here at the Avalon air show when asked why taxpayers should believe thecompany can perform. “And we won the program. So that is a maturity stamp that I’ll give you right then and there.”

Boeing, which beat out Lockheed Martin for the NGAD effort on March 21, is now on the hook to deliver the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet. The platform is expected to begin replacing the venerable F-22 Raptor around the 2030 timeframe and operate as a “family of systems” in tandem with drone wingmen known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

Little was known about the NGAD program prior to the contract award, except for the disclosure in 2020 that at least one prototype had flown. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) then confirmed on the day of the NGAD contract award that Boeing and Lockheed Martin previously designed X-planes that first took flight in 2019, which Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said had been “quietly laying the foundation” for NGAD by amassing hundreds of flight hours.

Still, as with any development program, Parker acknowledged some risks may lay ahead, though he said certain tools such as digital engineering can help ensure unwelcome technical discoveries are resolved as early as possible.

“There’s no smoke and mirrors here,” Parker said. “When we develop things, you know, there’s a degree of risk there. But at the end of day, it’s really about, what can we do differently? And that digital environment, that digital engineering, we are taking risk out well ahead” of traditional programs.

“Computational fluid dynamics, wind tunnel testing, digital testing,” are all critical tools, Parker said. “That’s the difference. It’s proven itself out with that recent award.”

Boeing’s defense unit has been saddled with losses due in large part to fixed-price development programs like the KC-46 tanker and T-7 training jet, leaving the company on the hook for billions of dollars in cost overruns. In contrast, according to an Air Force official, the NGAD contract for the program’s engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase was awarded as a cost-plus incentive-fee deal, where the government is expected to pick up the tab for more risky R&D work that Boeing can collect a fee for in exchange. Cost-plus contracts are often used for exquisite new programs.

The EMD phase “will mature, integrate, and test all aspects of the NGAD Platform. The contract will produce a small number of test aircraft, which will be used to perform testing. The contract also includes competitively priced options for Low-Rate Initial Production aircraft,” the official said.

“You’re not going to hear a lot from us. We’re going to be down and in on executing. That’s been happening in our program for quite a number of years,” Parker said.

Parker did not mention it, but another next-gen fighter opportunity for the company may be approaching imminently as well. The Navy is expected to award a contract for its own futuristic fighter program, dubbed F/A-XX, as soon as this week, according to Reuters.

The Navy effort is down to Boeing and Northrop Grumman after Lockheed Martin’s exit from the competition. As Breaking Defense first reported, Lockheed submitted an F/A-XX bid that did not meet the Navy’s criteria. The company did not proceed in the contest as a result.

‘No smoke and mirrors’ with Boeing’s NGAD win, executive says - Breaking Defense

“We’ve been flying a prototype for quite some time,” said Steve Parker, Boeing’s interim defense unit CEO. “And we won the program. So that is a maturity stamp that I’ll give you right then and there.”

breakingdefense.com

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

#384 -- now that is where I am concerned. The KC-46 program is behind schedule. Yet, if you peel back the onion enough, you will find the reason traces all the way back to John McCain, whom I've mentioned a few times in other posts. Then add in the Air Force changing its requirements since the contract was awarded.

The T-7 trainer? That I am not familiar with enough.

 

[j_hungary]

But please correct me if I'm wrong ... we still haven't seen any from them or even a sketch to know what exact configuration they have or in what regard they differ?

And may I ask, in what way did the 2 planes the Chinese show was a 6th Gen Prototype? And in what way they are different than the other prototype all other country had flown?

You don't need to show people their prototype, in fact, even if you had shown it, it wouldn't really matter much, because it is about individual technology, which is something you can't see in any prototype. And if we are talking about individual technology, then I will say any F-22 with adaptive cycle engine (which already exist) would be more 6th gen than anything in the world.

But then, at the end of the day, we all can only guess, so there aren't much of a point to say it is, or it is not either way.

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

Locking.

All discussion now to be moved to either the F-47 or F/A-XX threads as appropriate.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.