Wither our fighters and attackers?

"It will be interesting to see how this 6th generation plane develops. In any event, it will go nowhere if the current Administration does not up its defense authorization. Why is that? Inflation."

As some already know, yesterday my wife and I went to see the new Top Gun. It was a great movie, and I will not "spill any spoilers" in this post. But I will say this however - I have been following industry news about how the US (as well as China and Russia), are trying to develop a new and revolutionary 6th generation fighter. Huh? Wait - don't we have the F-35 and F-22 now? Planes which everyone is in awe of. So what is the deal? Simply this - soon, very soon, the F-35, the F-22, the F-18 Super Hornet, might be so "yesterday".

Here is the truth about the 6th generation fighters. They will be more stealthy, fly higher, fly sup-sonic, super-sonic, and maybe even hyper-sonic, and may be manned or unmanned. The big aerospace aircraft companies are already working on concept models. With all this technology, will these new planes be expensive? Probably - very expensive. But if our enemies come up with 6th generation technology before we do, it will seriously tilt the battlefield - and not in our favor.

This is not a spoiler, but in one of the scenes in the movie Top Gun, when an admiral was "dressing down" Maverick, the admiral said, "Your finished Maverick. Soon we won't need your kind anymore. Planes will not need pilots." Wow! Bring on the AI! An interesting article in Business Insider recently, the author of the article threw some shade on how far 6th generation development will go. Why? The huge leap in technology. There might not be enough pennies in the penny jar to cover the costs of this huge change in fighter jet abilities.

Then what happens to the 2,000 to 2,500 F-35 Lightening II fighter jets? We have sunk a LOT of money into these planes. Many problems at first, and many fixes to get them to where they are now. But will they be obsolete by 2030? Will they become just "bait" for a much faster and stealthier 6th generation fighter, flown by an enemy? Questions with no answers. And the F-22? Same unknown answer.

Some experts think we might be coming to the end of the stealth era. That technologies are being developed which are so sophisticated, they can defeat even the best of stealth. And then what? Speed only? Or much more punch and legs in stand off weapons? 

It will be interesting to see how this 6th generation plane develops. In any event, it will go nowhere if the current Administration does not up its defense authorization. Why is that? Inflation. The DOD is not immune from the scourge of inflation. Did you hear that Commander-in-Chief? Better sharpen your pencils, and fast.