The replacement for the F-22 air superiority fighter is in the air:
The U.S. Air Force has secretly designed, built and flown at least one prototype of its enigmatic next-generation fighter jet, the service’s top acquisition official confirmed to Defense News on Sept. 14.
The development is certain to shock the defense community, which last saw the first flight of an experimental fighter during the battle for the Joint Strike Fighter contract 20 years ago. With the Air Force’s future fighter program still in its infancy, the rollout and successful first flight of a demonstrator was not expected for years.
Nothing is known about the plane, including whether flying it used an onboard pilot.
The jack-of-all-trades F-35 is good. But the much older F-22 is still the top gun focused on air superiority.
But there aren't many of the F-22 which saw its production run end much truncated in the post-Cold War world. But now the American military must face contested air spaces. We don't want to operate with enemy control of the airspace over our forces.
We'll see if being designed and tested digitally means the Air Force can get a replacement that is inexpensive enough to build in the numbers that the F-22 could not be built.
