Sponsored by Bertin Exensor
www.exensor.com
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
20 Dec 24. New Air Force review supports manned 6th-gen NGAD fighter concept. Military analysis supports the fielding of a sixth-generation stealth fighter, Breaking Defense has learned, though a final decision on the Next Generation Air Dominance platform now rests with the Trump administration.
A recent internal Air Force analysis supports the development of a manned, next-generation fighter jet, three sources told Breaking Defense — a finding that comes amid a high-profile debate over the future of the multi-bn-dollar Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program.
While the Trump administration will make the final decision of whether to press forward with NGAD, which was paused earlier this year, the review’s results could strengthen the case to keep the program alive and award a contract for the future fighter.
In a statement to Breaking Defense today, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall did not dispute that the overall conclusion of the analysis supports a next-gen manned fighter, though he did caution that other factors including cost would determine its outcome.
“While our analysis does demonstrate that there is value in a next generation crewed platform, the current NGAD design comes at high total and unit costs that may be unaffordable,” Kendall said.
“Our analysis also highlights that there may be significant opportunity costs associated with proceeding with NGAD, given the DAF’s [Department of the Air Force] strategic priorities and the potential level of Air Force and Space Force budgets. There are a number of interdependencies and alternative options at various risk and resourcing levels which the next administration will have to consider before making a decision. All options remain on the table,” he added.
The NGAD program was temporarily suspended as the Air Force weighed whether it could afford an expensive next-generation fighter in light of ongoing budget constraints, the breakneck pace of adversary threats, and technological progress on competing spending priorities, especially a budding effort to field drone wingmen dubbed Collaborative Combat Aircraft. The CCA wingmen are expected to be a critical force multiplier for manned Air Force aircraft and have been described as a key component of the envisioned NGAD family of systems.
Kendall said in public comments Thursday that other concerns also influenced the delay, like how the platform would fit into the service’s Agile Combat Employment — a method of dispersing operations to avoid a crippling attack, relying on a network of bases officials fret may not have adequate defenses. The service is also weighing what elements are needed to support an NGAD fighter, like a next-gen tanker, whose fate is currently in limbo.
Air Force leaders decided to use the fall to review the NGAD concept, calling in help from former officials and researchers to conduct additional analysis. The process was expected to wrap up in time to inform the Air Force’s fiscal 2026 budget request, though the service recently announced it would punt a decision on the platform’s fate to the incoming Trump administration.
Without sharing the results, Kendall said publicly Thursday that the NGAD analysis was “mostly done” with the caveat that the new Trump team “may want some additional analysis when they show up.” He noted that the Air Force is “very close to being ready to proceed if that program continues its current form.”
The Air Force’s NGAD hesitancy sent shockwaves through the defense industry, which after a decade of development was gearing up for a decision on the jet originally expected this year. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are believed to be the prime contractors vying for the jet’s lucrative contract, which would likely be the world’s first sixth-gen fighter.
A next-gen fighter effort also carries profound implications for the engine industrial base. The NGAD platform is the only aircraft publicly planned to use an “adaptive” powerplant, which could offer leaps in fuel efficiency and thrust. GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney are competing to build the NGAD engine under a program called Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion.
While the Air Force’s analysis substantiates the requirement for a sixth-generation fighter, it’s unclear whether the service will be able to find the funding to continue development of the NGAD aircraft and engine given significant budget pressure from other programs such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the B-21 Raider stealth bomber and the nuclear-tipped Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile system, whose price recently ballooned by 81 percent.
Kendall told Breaking Defense earlier this year he was confident that a sixth-generation fighter would be built, though he left the door open to an optionally manned version. Kendall said the operational challenges, primarily due to the rise of China, have been defined by an “accumulation of threats,” noting that Cold War-era assumptions can no longer hold.
“We’re not up against the Soviet Union anymore,” Kendall said. “We’re up against China, primarily, as the pacing challenge. And we’ve got to be sure we’re doing the right thing.”
How the incoming Trump administration will handle the NGAD issue is unknown. President-elect Donald Trump has yet to name his nominee for Air Force Secretary, but Elon Musk — an influential associate of Trump who will run his Department of Government Efficiency initiative — has made his views clear.
“[M]anned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones,” Musk recently posted on X, the social media platform he owns.
(Source: Breaking Defense.com)
19 Dec 24. Special Operations Chief Details Irregular Warfare Place in Defense Strategy. Special operations forces have been crucial in U.S. counterterrorism efforts, but they also have a place in what is also known as a great power competition, said Chris Maier, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict.
Maier spoke at the Center for a New American Security, yesterday and highlighted the various roles special operations forces play in competitions with China and Russia.
He said special operations forces work in the context of a whole-of-government approach, but they can play a major part in those efforts. “We are, particularly as we look at some of our special operations enterprise, in a lot of different places,” he said. This gives special operators a chance to reassure allies and partners and also a chance to give a heads-up when they see things going amiss.
Special operations forces are nimble, they have a culture of innovation, and that fits in with great power competition.
It wasn’t always that way.
Maier said that irregular warfare was covered in an annex to the 2018 National Defense Strategy. “For those of you who have been in the federal government, you know what annex means — it was an afterthought. It didn’t make the main show,” he said.
In the 2022 iteration of the strategy, irregular warfare was integrated into the main strategy. “It’s really a key part of integrated deterrence,” he said. Asymmetric and nonconventional operations are side by side with the conventional aspects of the strategy, he said.
“I think an indication of the road we still have to travel is the number of synonyms we use to describe this space,” he said. “It may be irregular, it may be unconventional, it may be hybrid, it may be gray zone, it may be asymmetric. These are all sort of variations on a theme.”
The myriad of names shows that there is some confusion about the dividing line between conventional and unconventional warfare and forces. Whatever it is called, it has a place at the table, Maier said.
“As a department, we think about fighting large scale combat operations,” he said. “And much of the early years of the 2022 were focused on that. The progress I think we’ve made in recent years is in expanding that aperture to really look at the aspects of competition and crisis as part of warfighting challenges.”
Maier said the reason the strategy defines China as the pacing challenge “is because they have such a range of tools and considerable leverage that they can draw on. So, it is rare operate … exclusively in kind of the gray zone or the regular space.”
There are conventional aspects to their operations. They engage in hybrid operations. The Chinese use the diplomatic Belt and Road Initiative as a part of their security strategy.
The U.S. strategy is evolving to ensure deterrence across all domains and in all theaters.
“At the end of the day, this is about deterrence,” he said. Taiwan is a flashpoint, and the United States stands by all the understandings with China and the Taiwan Defense Act. Essentially, this boils down to no country changes the status quo by force. “I think we’re carefully calibrating what we’re doing at any given time to as much as possible, establish that deterrence, dissuade from a military operation into Taiwan.”
The other flashpoint with China is their excessive claims in the South and West China Seas. China has their own irregular warfare arm of maritime militias challenging other countries in the region — most notably the Philippines. The Chinese maritime militias are not a conventional military force, but they have “a lot of ability to compel and coerce,” Maier said.
The partnerships with the Philippines and others in the region are important to the United States in putting Chinese actions on the record. “At the end of the day, a lot of this type of activity is dissuaded with the ability to put it in the open,” he said. “If it’s allowed to exist in the shadows, it’s going to continue and the coercive effects will be felt.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Founded in 1987, Exensor Technology is a world leading supplier of Networked Unattended Ground Sensor (UGS) Systems providing tailored sensor solutions to customers all over the world. From our Headquarters in Lund Sweden, our centre of expertise in Network Communications at Communications Research Lab in Kalmar Sweden and our Production site outside of Basingstoke UK, we design, develop and produce latest state of the art rugged UGS solutions at the highest quality to meet the most stringent demands of our customers. Our systems are in operation and used in a wide number of Military as well as Homeland Security applications worldwide. The modular nature of the system ensures any external sensor can be integrated, providing the user with a fully meshed “silent” network capable of self-healing. Exensor Technology will continue to lead the field in UGS technology, provide our customers with excellent customer service and a bespoke package able to meet every need.
A CNIM Group Company
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–