Air dominance has been the determining factor in contemporary warfare for a long time. From the chaos-filled dogfights of World War II to the stealth superiority of the F-22 Raptor, the dominant air power has typically set the tone on the ground. But with competitors bridging the gap in capability, air superiority is on the threshold of a new era—an era characterized not by individual airplanes alone, but by the comprehensive digital environments developed around sixth-generation fighters.
For a decade, the F-22 was invulnerable, a wonder of stealth, speed, and maneuverability. But even legends grow old. Its stratospheric price, low production quantities, and inability to adjust to the demands of today’s missions have rendered it more emblem than utility of the future. The F-35 has picked up the mantle with its sensors and multirole versatility, but even it is coming under increased pressure as others copy their own state-of-the-art designs.
What distinguishes sixth-generation aircraft is not only more efficient engines or streamlined bodies, but the extent to which air combat itself will be fought. These jets are being designed to fight with unprecedented autonomy, with a lack of pilot input in performing intricate missions.
Rather than engaging individually, they will be airborne command centers, guiding hordes of unmanned drones to attack targets, knock out radars, or collect real-time intelligence. This vision comes from network-centric warfare, where planes are no longer solo machines but critical nodes in an enormous web connecting satellites, troops, and cyber networks into one war network.
Artificial intelligence will be the heart that beats this revolution. Future combatants will utilize AI to analyze torrents of sensor information, detect threats sooner than a human could, and even control onboard weapons. Performing split-second operations automatically, pilots will be able to devote themselves to greater strategic decisions. Even the weapons themselves will become more intelligent, talking to each other and adjusting in mid-air to changing enemy defenses. The emphasis will shift from the solitary skill of one ace to the smooth execution of a man-machine combination.
Pioneering the drive in the US is the Air Force Next Generation Air Dominance program, or NGAD. At its center will be a manned fighter—hyped to be named the F-47—designed with increased range, stealth, and versatility than ever before.
But NGAD is so much more than a single jet. It’s envisioned as a “system of systems,” coupling the manned fighter with squadrons of unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft, backed by new communications and control networks. The ambition is to have 200 NGAD fighters flying in coordination with 1,000 unmanned allies, bringing overwhelming firepower, reach, and speed.
This competition for sixth-generation airpower is playing out worldwide. Europe is proceeding with the Future Combat Air System, a collaborative French, German, and Spanish program, while the UK, Italy, and Japan are working on the Global Combat Air Programme. Other countries are investigating their own conceptualizations, but many of these projects won’t come of age for many decades to come.
The hurdles, though, are enormous. The expense of creation is astounding—NGAD itself may take over $20 billion, and each plane might cost hundreds of millions. Engineers are relying on digital design methods and open-architecture software that are supposed to speed up development and make future upgrades simpler. Still, it is a fearful challenge to merge so many complex technologies into one functional system.
Training will be equally important. Tomorrow’s fifth-generation pilots already deal with more information and automation than any generation of pilots has ever had. The next step will require even greater agility, the capacity to make split-second decisions, and the stamina to cope with the frenzy of a battlespace characterized by speed and complexity.
In the future, the quintessential characteristic of sixth-generation combat will be connectivity. These planes won’t merely battle; they will choreograph. As the centers of gravity for multi-domain operations, they’ll command drones, mesh with satellites, connect with ground forces, and integrate air, space, and cyber into a single unified combat network. Not just the fastest flyers, but the fastest thinkers and fastest connectors, will win.