After watching the videos of J-36 and J-50, US military engineers finally admitted that China's sixth-generation fighter is far ahead!

Former designer from US Northrop Grumman, Darold Cummings, said with his own mouth that China's sixth-generation fighter has already taken the lead in aerodynamic design.

There are two key issues in the development of sixth-generation fighters: one is how to minimize the detectability of the aircraft (i.e., reduce radar cross-section RCS), and the other is how to handle the massive data in future air combat. China has already made breakthroughs in reducing RCS.

Darold Cummings mentioned that by eliminating the tail fins and using thrust vector control, the RCS can be significantly reduced - a concept that the US had already tested on the Lockheed X-44 Manta demonstrator in 1999, but the Chinese have already applied it to operational aircraft.

For example, the J-36 and J-50 fighter jets have removed all tail fins and now use thrust vector control. What does this mean? It means that China's aircraft have already taken the lead in stealth performance, while similar US designs are still in the paper or testing phase and have not been deployed in practice.

Regarding data management, future air combat will require handling a large amount of information, such as target identification, threat assessment, and communication with other aircraft (such as tankers and early warning aircraft). Darold Cummings believes that this is likely to be solved by artificial intelligence (AI) and collaborative combat aircraft (CCA), which means using one fighter to control multiple drones to share tasks.

Public reports show that China has already been testing AI-driven drone formations, such as the "Loyal Wingman" concept demonstrated at last year's Zhuhai Air Show. In comparison, although the F-35 and F-22 have data fusion capabilities, they still rely on pilots for complex tasks, and the AI systems required for sixth-generation fighters are still in the early stages of research and development.

The F-22 took nearly 15 years from EMD to deployment, and the F-35 was similar. Therefore, the F-47 will not be deployed until at least 2039. By that time, China's sixth-generation fighter may have been deployed for years, and even the seventh-generation fighter may have started testing. This means that the US may fall behind by an entire generation.

Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1845488122303495/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.