USA: Next Generation Air Dominance (F-22-Nachfolger Boeing F-47)

[theoderich]

Air Force designates Northrop Grumman’s Talon prototype as YFQ-48A (22. Dezember 2025)

The U.S. Air Force announces the designation of YFQ-48A as the Mission Design Series for Northrop Grumman’s Project Talon, a semi-autonomous prototype aircraft. This designation marks a key step forward in the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, underscoring the Air Force’s commitment to rapidly delivering next-generation capabilities that meet the urgent and evolving needs of the warfighter. The MDS designation highlights the ongoing partnership between the Air Force and Northrop Grumman and acknowledges the continued progress of the YFQ-48A as a strong contender in the CCA program.

https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display ... s-yfq-48a/

[theoderich]

https://www.facebook.com/GenAtomicsASI/ ... sKrW3Zizvl

[theoderich]

[theoderich]

[theoderich]

https://www.facebook.com/EdwardsAirForc ... AsaWqiYnQl


Marines starting early work on sixth-gen fighter jet concepts

The Marine Corps is starting to mull concepts for a new sixth-generation fighter jet, one that will likely “look like,” but not necessarily be, whatever the Navy picks for its F/A-XX program.

When the Marine Corps released its 2026 Aviation Plan in February, it included a small nod to the concept of having a sixth-generation fighter after 2041. The process of fleshing that out is now underway, according to Lt. Gen. William Swan, the Marine Corps’ deputy commandant for aviation, who told reporters in a Thursday roundtable that service leaders discussed plans during a Quantico meeting earlier this week.

“I think right now, if you had to say, ‘Hey, what is it going to look like?’ I think it’ll look a lot more like what the Navy’s doing because we still fly off the carriers, we’re part of the Department of the Navy,” Swan said.

“I think, you know, I don’t know that we’re going to get high end, and that’s really not a Marine Corps mission. It’s an Air Force [mission]. So I think if I had to, if you said, make a decision right now, it would be yes, some amount to augment the fifth-gen force, and it would probably look something like the F/A-XX or whatever the Navy ends up being.”

Swan said he ordered his team to include the mention of a sixth-gen fighter in the aviation plan because he wanted the Corps to be thinking about “a couple different ways” of how to get there.

“We’re fast following with the Air Force, right? They got the F-47, the Navy’s looking at F/A-XX, and they’re just starting on that. So we are going to watch. We want an all Block 4 F-35 fleet, and that’s probably going to take another 10 years,” Swan said. “So we’re probably five to 10 years away from ultimately making that decision, and we’ll see what they have, see what the threat looks like.”

https://breakingdefense.com/2026/04/mar ... -concepts/

[theoderich]

[theoderich]

[theoderich]

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BbGkYZdoJ/

[theoderich]

https://www.facebook.com/share/14gWCB8KhjP/

[theoderich]

Meink offers blueprint for modernizing Air, Space Forces 'affordably'

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (AFNS) --
Department of the Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Sept. 14 the Air Force and Space Force must confront and defeat rapidly changing, AI-enabled threats while navigating a budget process built for a different pace of warfare.

The department’s mission, Meink said in a closely watched keynote address at the 2026 Air and Space Cyber Conference, is to “defend the homeland, deter all adversaries, and … if necessary … win in combat.”

As he has before, Meink emphasized a continued shift in force design to include a potent and dominant mix of crewed and uncrewed systems.

“When we pair manned aircraft with low-cost autonomous systems, we will be able to unlock combat power at scale,” he said.

“We will dramatically increase our combat power by adding large numbers of highly autonomous systems. We're using concepts such as Open Systems Architecture to accelerate procurement, which has also increased competition from industry, resulting in better choices, better prices, and more combat power.

“Because of the steps we’re taking today, we’ll have a radically different looking Air Force by 2032.”

In the near term, by 2032, Meink said, “our special operators will have the ability to employ thousands of autonomous one-way attack weapons.

“And we will have autonomous fighters, like the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCAs. We intend to have at least 500 of these in service by 2032.

They’ll perform many of the missions that manned fighters currently execute.

Meink also announced that two new autonomous aircraft, the FQ-42 and FQ-44, have been named – Vengeance and Fury.

Additionally, Meink said the Department is developing a new version of uncrewed, multi-purpose aircraft called Mass Modular Aircraft of MMA.

“MMAs will provide affordable, attritable, long range combat power. And we'll field them at scale. With budget support, we will field 100 MMA by 2029 at half the cost of a CCA and 1/10 the cost of a fifth-gen. fighters. So, that by 2032, 500 of these platforms will join our Air Force’s operational fleet,” he said.

https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display ... ffordably/



https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BzPT9s61G/


https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1G9qzxWquu/