Ever wondered how the future of aerial warfare might unfold? Strap in as we soar into the heart of Lockheed's latest triumph in aviation technology. This week, we're cranking up the afterburners and tearing into the sleek, streamlined design of the next-generation air dominance (NGAD) fighter. From its tail-less design aimed at low visibility to its modified delta wing structure, this aircraft threatens to revolutionize air battles as we know them. Not to mention, we're diving past the contrails to explore the role of spectral warfare capabilities and the game-changing potential of drones as force multipliers.
But that's not all. The NGAD fighter isn't just about a single aircraft. It's a whole family of systems working in tandem for air superiority. We'll pull back the curtain on how this collective approach could drastically alter the dynamics of modern warfare. And if you're curious about the significance of range in the Pacific Theater, we've got that covered too. So, buckle up and prepare for takeoff into a world of advanced aircraft design. Whether you're a seasoned aviator or just an aircraft enthusiast, our deep dive into the NGAD fighter will leave you flying high. Remember to hit that subscribe button to stay tuned with us on this aeronautical odyssey.
You're listening to the Pilot Photog podcast, where every airplane has a story. The game has changed. Have you seen the NGAD fighter? We need to rethink the way we fight, and the latest NGAD concept may have just showed us how. Lockheed's famous skunkworks, the ultimate secret projects team recently released a silhouette and concept drawing of their next generation air dominance fighter, which we've taken a step further by creating this 3D model. So sit down and grab your popcorn, because we're going to dissect this aircraft and show you some new domains of war fighting that you may not be aware of.
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Stealth used to be primarily focused on the shape of an airplane to help it deflect radar waves, making them harder to detect or low observable. You can see this in the design of the F-117 Nighthawk. Viewed from the nose, its design scatters radar signals, making it harder to detect. The F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning make use of similar design philosophies, for example by placing the horizontal stabilizers in line with the wings, hiding them from head on view. But here's the thing radars that can detect stealth aircraft have gotten so good that we've seen a resurgence in infrared search and track, or IRST systems. Aircraft like the Eurofighter Typhoon feature an IRST pod built into the nose. These systems are passive, meaning that using them does not alert a target aircraft. Think of looking for a fighter using a high powered telescope. That's sort of what this is With IRST systems if you can physically see your target, you can track it. This is what makes the NGAD concept model so interesting.
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Despite having a cockpit, the airframe is streamlined virtually from all angles. When viewed from the front, the NGAD almost doesn't appear to have a canopy. It almost looks like a flying drone. The intakes are blended into the fuselage and overall, the design is highly streamlined. The intakes are blended into the fuselage and the overall design is highly streamlined. From this side, the entire fuselage looks like a wing or airfoil, which likely allows for a shorter than normal wing span. The wings appear to have leading edge extensions, or lex, similar to those found on the Super Hornet. This allows for much greater maneuvering at slower speed flight regimes, such as landings or high alpha maneuvers that you may encounter in air to air combat. The remainder of the wing appears to have a modified delta wing structure, which could indicate that the aircraft is designed for very high speeds. This seems likely, since the end guide could be used to launch hypersonic missiles. These extremely fast missiles ideally would be launched at speeds of Mach 2 or greater, allowing their ramjets to power them to hypersonic speeds. Needless to say, this airframe will need to undergo much testing.
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Getting back to visual detection from IRST systems, the end guide concept appears to incorporate many design aspects which make it harder to visually detect. Taking measures to reduce visual detection are part of an increasingly important warfighting domain known as spectral warfare. Visual detection becomes even more important when you also consider improvements in electronic warfare or radar jamming. Modern jamming aircraft or drones can degrade radar signals to the point that they are useless. Having advanced spectral warfare, irst systems is an excellent counter to this. For this reason, offensively, the end guide would make use of its own IRST system, which we've imagined here to be very similar to the F-35's Electro Optical Targeting System, or EOTS. This could help the end guide fighter target adversaries in highly contestant environments, while keeping its search radar in a passive mode.
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Another area of interest is the exhaust port. The silhouette we've seen shows a peak or triangle at the end of the aircraft. This too could be related to spectral warfare. One of the easier ways to detect an aircraft at a distance is from its afterburner plumes. The end guide's exhaust port appears to be designed to hide or shroud the engine's thrust. This is somewhat similar to what the YF-23 Black Widow did with its exhaust ports creating channels to cool the exhaust as it left the engines, along with reducing its heat signature. The end guide's design could help reduce or even eliminate the afterburner plume from most viewing angles. This likely also indicates that the design will be single engine, like the F-35, and could have 2D thrust vectoring like the F-22 Raptor.
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Like all self aircraft, the end guide will carry its weapons inside of internal bays. This is done, of course, to reduce the aircraft's profile, making it more stealthy, but it does come at a cost. The amount and size of weapons are restricted by the physical size of the weapons bays and, in our notional concept, the end guide can carry 4 medium to long range air to air missiles. These bays could also be used for air to ground munitions, and we have to assume that new weapon systems are being developed that would fit inside the end guide's internal bays With a somewhat limited weapons bay size. The question then becomes how much will the end guide rely on drones? In a previous video, I discussed how collaborative combat aircraft, or CCAs, can make the F-35 lightning, a force multiplier, and we have to assume that the end guide will take things further.
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Fighter sized drones like Boeing's MQ-28 Ghostbat are already flying. These drones use AI along with modular mission packages to perform different roles in supporting crewed aircraft. This means that one Ghostbat could be configured as a dedicated jamming aircraft, while another could be configured to carry weapons. In this concept, the end guide would act as a quarterback, directing the drones to achieve certain objectives, while keeping the end guide in a low power state to help it avoid detection. The Air Force has already stated that they want 1000 CCAs and about 200 end guide fighters, so this would mean a 5 to 1 ratio of uncrewed drones to each crewed end guide fighter. It is important to remember that the end guide initiative is not just about the fighter, but rather a family of systems which include the drones. These are all meant to work together as a family of systems to achieve air superiority in the modern battle space.
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It's almost impossible to overstate how important drones will become in the near future. The AI and machine learning techniques that will be implemented into drones will help automate and even accelerate electronic warfare functions. What this means is that we could see real-time updates or even software patches installed during a mission as a strike group proceeds to or leaves the target. This is another newer type of warfighting known as cognitive electronic warfare. Essentially, onboard AI programs learn what the enemy's electronic defenses are and develops counters for them, applying them to all aircraft in a strike package in real time. An excellent use of this would be suppression of enemy air defenses, or SEED, a highly dangerous mission type that basically asks the strike aircraft to have a surface-to-air missile fired at it so that it can target the launching radar. Obviously, it is much better for a drone to do this than a crewed aircraft. And, speaking of drones, not all CCA assets will be of the same size and capacity. While the fighter-sized Ghostbat is a great example, we can envision other drones of various sizes and capabilities accompanying the NGAD fighter during various parts of a mission.
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The importance of electronic warfare can be summed up best by Air Force General Mark Kelly, who is the head of Air Combat Command, quote if we lose the war on the electromagnetic spectrum, we're going to lose the war and lose it quickly. Then there is the aircraft's skin. We've already seen the 6th generation B-21 radar fly with a white or light gray coating. The thinking here is that the lighter coatings could indicate that the radar is intended to fly day or night ops. The radar also will make use of next-generation radar-absorbing materials or RAM coatings, and we can expect the same for the NGAD fighter.
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The overall design of the NGAD fighter is a very slick and tail-less design which makes use of an elongated fuselage with a blended wing. The lack of vertical tails is a sure indication that priority has been given to low observability, possibly at the expense of maneuvering. Still, the streamlined design will go a long way in extending the NGAD's range, which is a critical requirement for operations in the Pacific Theater, where distances are measured in thousands of miles. Thanks for listening to the Pilot Photog Podcast. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast and the YouTube channel as well. I will leave links in the description slash show notes below. Now you know.