In a public procurement report, the United States Air Force (Air Force) has shown a conceptual image of a sixth-generation fighter under the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, writes veteran United States Marine Corps (ILC) Alex Hollings on the Sandboxx blog.
The publication notes that the new images are slightly different from those published in September 2020, in particular the “more triangular” shape of the fighter.
The author notes that such a design is typical for aircraft created by Northrop Grumman, which, in particular, developed the prototype of the first fifth-generation fighter YF-23, which lost in the competition to the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, and has now practically completed the creation of an unobtrusive strategic bomber B-21 Raider.
In September 2020, Will Roper, serving as Assistant Procurement to the Secretary of the Air Force, stated that the Pentagon, under the secrecy of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, designed, built and at least once flew an X-plane demonstrator, under which means, in particular, a new generation unmanned or manned aircraft, including a sixth generation fighter.
In February, Aviation Week editor Steve Trimble reported on Twitter that Lockheed Martin showed footage of a sixth-generation fighter jet at the Air Warfare Symposium 2020 in Orlando, Florida.
