The Navy's new stealth fighter and the future of American AirPower

[Music] the U.S Navy is finally giving us a glimpse into how much it's spending on its new stealth fighter a projected 1.53 billion dollars in 2024 alone this outpaces funding for both the Navy's Next Generation attack submarine and Next Generation Destroyer programs combined and it demonstrates the Navy's commitment to dominating the Skies of the 21st century let's talk about the fax fighter and what it'll bring to the table I'm Alex Hollings and this is air power [Music] today the U.S Navy operates a combination of fa-18 super hornets and f-35c lightning twos from its Fleet of Ford and nimitz-class super carriers and this really represents the most potent form of force projection in Uncle Sam's sprawling Arsenal these Fighters represent some of the most technologically advanced tactical aircraft in the world with the F-35 widely seen as a flying supercomputer and America's super Hornets amid a block 3 upgrade meant to make these broadly capable multi-role Fighters relevant for years to come but with an eye toward deterring conflict with China and the Pacific the Navy is gonna need a big injection of new technology and capabilities in the not too distant future not only has China fielded a rapidly advancing array of long-range anti-ship weapon systems designed specifically to Target American aircraft carriers from four digit changes but development is ongoing on the Shenyang fc31 also sometimes known as the j-31 which is the nation's newest stealth fighter intended to operate from its own growing Fleet of aircraft carriers so with that aim of countering Chinese forces and the sprawling expanses of the Pacific the U.S Navy is investing heavily into advanced new forms of air power and the fax program is leading the way in fact the disclosed sum of money the Navy aims to invest into the fax in 2024 outpaces funding aimed at both its next Generation attack sub and Next Generation Destroyer programs and to be honest we don't know how much the Navy has already spent on this program we know for sure the Navy has been funding this effort for the past three years at least but we also know that the sum of money it put into it is classified but before we delve into the capabilities the fax program aims to bring to bear let's first address the elephant in the room or the elephant that's sure to be present in the comment section because anytime the U.S starts development on a new fighter there's always a vocal group who seems to think it's meant to be a replacement for the F-35 for some reason and to be clear this is just my personal conjecture but it seems the Navy's tired of answering these questions too and that's probably why they carried over the arguably outdated fa prefix for their new stealth fighter because of the f-35's troubled acquisition process and Technical setbacks those who don't stay abreast of these programs often tend to base their perceptions of the F-35 unhyperbolic and clickbaity headlines about the Joint Strike Fighter program being a failure of course we've addressed this common misconception from a variety of angles both on this YouTube channel and on Sandbox news from dispelling famously misleading reports of the fighters dogfighting prowess to publishing first-hand accounts from F-35 Pilots themselves but like so many hot takes fueled by social media flame Wars the idea that the U.S wants to do away with the F-35 is one bad take that just won't die and that brings me to that fa or fighter attack prefix you see the original fa-18 Hornet was the first aircraft in history to transition from a ground attack mission to an air combat Mission and then back again all in the same sortie it happened during the Persian Gulf War back in 1991 and at the time this historic combination of air-to-air or fighter chops an air to ground or attack capabilities was groundbreaking and its fighter slash attack or fa prefix was meant to signify that but in the years since multi-role capabilities of this sort have become not only commonplace but standard among advanced later platforms even the legendary air superiority focused F-22 Raptor has seen combat in an attack role really rendering that fa prefix somewhat moot why Carry It Forward into the 21st century then well almost certainly as a clear indicator of which fighter this new platform will replace the fax heading for service in the mid-2030s will relieve the Navy standing fleets of fa-18 super Hornets not the F-35 so now that we've got that covered let's dive into the aircraft the fax fighter design remains shrouded in a great deal of secrecy it's currently being developed under the Navy specific Next Generation air dominance program which isn't to be confused with the Air Force effort of the same name to field a replacement for the aforementioned F-22 Raptor despite sharing a program name the Navy and Air Force have been clear that each branch is independently developing a unique platform specifically suited to their requirements seemingly suggesting that the Pentagon has finally learned its lesson from trying to cram every Branch's requirements into one F-35 however because both efforts have placed a huge emphasis on the modularity of internal systems it seems really likely that despite having different external designs these two Next Generation Fighters will probably share a lot internally because the fax program is expected to feel the fighter a few years after the Air Force's next Generation air dominance effort it seems probable that the Navy hasn't already chosen a design and primary contractor as such hard specifics about the capabilities it'll bring to bear likely don't exist at all let alone in disclosed documentation but the Navy has been rather clear on what it expects from this new platform and that can tell us a lot about where its priorities will be I'll start by quoting a doc document published by the Navy in October of 21 entitled the Navy Aviation Vision 2030-2035. its specific capabilities and Technologies are under development however analysis shows it must have longer range and greater speed incorporate passive and active sensor technology and possess the capability to employ the longer range weapons programmed for the future today's Super Hornet has a maximum combat radius of just a bit shy of 640 miles but that number is misleading according to the Navy Zone assessment it can only fly that far when flying completely clean with no external armaments except for a pair of Sidewinder missiles obviously in order to be leveraged as an attack platform the aircraft would have to carry more Firepower than that so it's safe to say that today's super Hornets are really limited to striking enemy targets no further than around 600 to 620 miles in the best of circumstances this single engine f-35c can stretch a bit further in part thanks to the fact that it carries its Munitions internally it can go around 670 miles before it's gotta turn back to counter this power projection capability though China has fielded a variety of ballistic and Hypersonic long-range anti-ship weapons including the dfzf Hypersonic boost climb weapon carried Aloft by China's df-17 intermediate range ballistic missile these weapons boast Thousand Mile plus ranges that would put American carriers directly In Harm's Way if they sailed close enough to China to launch combat sorties and the solution the Navy's vision statement suggests is a new fighter design that offers greater range than either in-service fighter coupled with the increased speed required to cover those ranges effectively and to continue on that same line of thinking a bevy of new long-range weapons will further extend the reach of these fax fighters to come now like the Air Force's ngad program these requirements really suggest a larger airframe capable of carrying more fuel on board and larger weapons internally in fact in the Congressional Research Services report on the ngad program they drew a parallel not to the F-22 Raptor but to the B-21 Raider in terms of how this platform May operate and it seems likely that the fax may share some things in common with the Raider as well a larger airframe would allow the fax to carry a larger internal payload all without compromising its stealth profile and this allows for a number of possibilities Advanced new air-to-air weapons like raytheon's peregrine missile offer all the range and kinetic power of today's amram and half the size which could feasibly allow a new fighter to carry a large volume of these air-to-air missiles with near triple digit ranges not to mention larger air-to-air missiles like the forthcoming aim to 6 60 that will probably offer double that range it'll also be able to carry weapons like the AAR GM ER which is an advanced anti-radiation missile with extended range allowing it to take out enemy radar arrays from well beyond the reach of those arrays surface-to-air missiles so far admittedly this is all stuff the f-35c can feasibly already do but with that larger airframe the fax will also be able to carry weapons like the long-range anti-ship missile or lrasm internally making this long-range high-speed fighter especially well suited for ship hunting duties on the high seas the lrasm's more modern sibling the agm-158d jasm XR is expected to offer a range of more than 1100 miles as such an fa XX fighter with let's say A Thousand Mile combat radius would be equipped to engage targets as far away as 2100 miles from the deck of the aircraft carrier it's launched from well beyond the reach of even the most advanced Chinese anti-ship weapons and of course that larger payload Bay could allow for carrying air-launched Hypersonic missiles as they find their way into service which today could really only be done via bombers like the B-52 or 4th generation Fighters that carry their weapons externally like the F-15 it's also important to note that the fa XX like the ngad will almost certainly fly with new adaptive cycle turbofan engines like ge's xa100 now we've gone into this engine in depth in other videos but suffice to say these new adaptive cycle engines offer far more thrust with far better fuel efficiency and far better heat management and that heat management part is really important because it allows for the production of a lot more electrical power on board to power all sorts of onboard systems and likely directed Energy Systems as both offensive weapons and defensive missile countermeasures in the future future but as capable as the Navy intends to make its new fax fighter its real power will probably come from the constellation of drones that will fly alongside it like most sixth generation fighter Concepts the Navy envisions the fax as a data fusing quarterback at the center of a group of AI enabled drone wingmen that will not only expand the Fighter's sensor reach and Armament but will also allow for a smaller number of advanced crude fighters to fly missions that would have previously required four or more piloted Jets this much was spelled out by Navy officials and a joint acquisition testimony last year I'll quote it now the ngad family of systems will replace the fa-18 E and F block 2 aircraft as they begin to reach the end of service life in the 2030s and leverage manned unmanned teaming in order to provide increased lethality and survivability facts is the Strike Fighter component of the NGA family of systems that will be the quarterback of the manned unmanned teaming concept directing multiple tactical platforms at the Leading Edge of the battle space the fax program entered what the Navy calls the concept refinement stage in 2021 and has reportedly been progressing on time but the crude fax fighter and its drone wingmen won't be the only assets in the sky according to this Navy documentation it appears the Navy is looking to take the manned unmanned teaming concept even further by coupling these high dollar platforms with lower cost assets to overwhelm enemy air defenses through volume as well as stealth and Firepower this time I'll quote the Navy's 2030-2035 Aviation Vision again these manned and unmanned aircraft plus a tradable assets will be employed across domains to enable integrated kinetic and non-kinetic Fires at tactically relevant ranges as autonomy and machine learning efforts mature the appropriate mix of fax manned and unmanned platforms will be evaluated to ensure the most lethal and affordable Carrier Air Wing possible the pentagon's concept for a treatable or low cost and somewhat disposable aircraft allows for a number of important developments in Naval Air power a tradable platforms can accept greater degrees of risk in combat operations as they're meant to be inexpensive enough for commanders in theater to have a great deal of flexibility in how they're employed the Kratos xq58a Valkyrie as one example is a low-cost subsonic low observable drone capable of carrying two small diameter bombs and flying attack missions inside enemy airspace but the Drone itself only costs a bit more than a tomahawk cruise missile to replace this approach to saturating enemy airspace with a variety of targets ranging in price and capability will not only offer a huge amount of Firepower without placing many Pilots at risk but it also allows for a return to the World War II methodology of overwhelming enemy air defenses through sheer volume put simply enemy air defenses are only effective until they run out of interceptors to launch by sending in systems like the ADM 160 miniature air launch to decoy or malt that can broadcast the radar returns of just about any in-service platform ranging from f-16s to B-52s alongside a bevy of low observable cruise missiles armed treadable drones more capable stealth ucabs and finally extremely low observable crude Fighters the Navy has the means to defeat even the most advanced air defense systems it'll ever run across once all the interceptors in an area have been expended trying to take down drones and Phantom radar returns American aircraft are free to operate uncontested within that airspace the truth is whatever specific capabilities the fax fighter brings to bear it's important not to lose sight of the broader combat ecosystem it aims to be a part of America's block 4 f-35cs will offer a dramatic jump in capability over today's Joint Strike Fighters and they'll soon be equipped to fly at the center of drone constellations of their own as such the amount of Firepower electronic warfare and intelligence gathering capabilities pouring off the flight decks of American carriers is likely to see an exponential increase in the years to come these new capabilities will be even further bolstered by Advanced Air Force programs like the B-21 Raider which will be capable of penetrating deep into China's area denial bubble to disrupt or destroy long-range anti-ship systems while carrier strike groups hang back at a safe distance launching fax sorties until the shoreline has been sufficiently pummeled to close into closer ranges for the full brunt of Naval Air power to be brought to bear the fax and f-35c Fighters launched from carriers will be bolstered themselves by Advanced new ngads and block 4 f-35as launched from friendly airstrips nearby all while Marines wreak havoc from smaller amphibious Landing ships launching their own sorties of more modernized f-35bs all told this means America's warfighting posture will be a swarming Hornet's Nest layering air power upon air power with low observable cruise missiles flying alongside radar return broadcasting decoys flying alongside assertable or disposable armed drones flying alongside Advanced and stealthy ucavs that are flying alongside even more capable stealth finders that are flying alongside more modern stealth bombers we're not talking about a technical one-two Punch or even Dynamic dog fighters duking it out in the sky no we're talking about a King Xerxes style approach to firing enough arrows to block out the Sun and if that sounds a bit like Overkill to you that's good in fact if anything that's the whole point the very premise behind having a deterrent military force is to wield such overwhelming power in defense of your people your territory and your interests that even the most capable of Bad actors will think twice before picking a fight if the ongoing conflict in Ukraine can teach us anything it's the importance of deterrence because when you have capable opponents who think they can take what they want from you they'll try an advanced new platforms like the fax ngad and the B-21 are all Uncle Sam's way of saying it might be best for you if you just stayed home instead and with that ends yet another edition of air power from sandbox news I'm Alex Hollings make sure to swing by sandboxnews.com today and every day for all the latest in news entertainment and motivation from all around the Force if you got anything out of today's video make sure to click like And subscribe down below and leave me a comment about what I should cover next and of course don't forget to tap on that Bell icon so you never miss a drop from sandbox news

Channel: Sandboxx

Views: 836,478

Keywords: stealth, stealth fighter, f/a-xx, faxx, fa-xx, ngad, us stealth fighter, aircraft carrier, carrier fighter, f/a-18, f-18, fa18, f18m, super hornet, us navy, airpower, naval aviation

Id: TqPziiCBInc

Length: 19min 14sec (1154 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 21 2023