(Luft) USAF Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD)

[Nightwatch]

Wohl ziemlich valide Gerüchte , nachdem die F-47 wohl nicht der erwartet große Vogel werden wird:

Lockheed Martin made the US NGAD demonstrator.
Boeing made the US Navy F/A-XX demonstrator.

The Lockheed demonstrator was the big, long ranged, F-111 sized aircraft everyone was talking about. Most likely powered by two 45,000lb thrust XA100 engines. This was the aircraft that was going to cost "hundreds of millions of dollars"

6 months ago the USAF was talking about buying a cheaper NGAD or an "F-35 Follow-on". The USAF then selected the Boeing demonstrator that was originally designed for the US Navy. This is why this aircraft has canards. Canards are needed to provide lift at the nose so the aircraft stays flat at low speeds during carrier landings. Thrust vectoring is a much better and more stealthy way of improving agility so there is no other reason to add canards besides for carrier landings.

Boeing will then win the US Navy contract so both aircraft will have high commonality and a very large production run that will further reduce unit cost. I would not be surprised if the aircraft costs only $150 million each. People have mentioned that it would be dangerous to out all the eggs in the Boeing basket. But any delays would be covered by extra F-35A and F-35C.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads...ost-770606

Eine Schwierige Entscheidung wenn es sich so verhält. Für den Pazifik wäre eine größere Plattform mit höherer Reichweite eigentlich unabdingbar. Hilft aber nichts wenn man sie nicht in den erforderlichen Stückzahlen produzieren kann. Zudem hätte es wohl eine gewisse Überlappung mit der B-21 gegeben. Wenn es sich so verhält, dass die Air Force sich nun entsprechend mehr auf die B-21 abstützen wird wäre es am Ende wahrscheinlich eine ganz gut Kompromisslösung.