A fifth-generation jet fighter is a fighter aircraft classification used in the United States encompassing the most advanced generation of fighter aircraft. Fifth-generation aircraft are the most advanced as of 2011[update], designed to incorporate numerous technological advances over the class similarly dubbed fourth generation, including all-aspect stealth even when armed, Low Probability of Intercept Radar (LPIR), high-performance air frames, advanced avionics features, and highly integrated computer systems capable of networking with other elements within the theater of war to achieve an advantage in situational awareness. The only currently combat-ready fifth-generation fighter, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, entered service with the U.S. Air Force in 2005;[1][2][3] the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is in development. Fifth-generation aircraft are exceptionally expensive, and have been difficult to justify in the post-Cold War period.[4]
Contents |
Previous generation stealth aircraft, such as the B-2 Spirit and F-117 Nighthawk, lacked LPI Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars, and LPI radio networks, and were thus limited to attacking ground targets, because use of radar to engage other aircraft would have revealed the aircraft's position.[5] In the early 1970s, various American design projects identified stealth, speed, and maneuverability as key characteristics for a next generation air to air combat aircraft. This led to the Request for Information for the Advanced Tactical Fighter project in May 1981, which resulted in the F-22.[6]
In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union outlined a need for a next-generation aircraft to replace fourth-generation fighter aircraft: MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker in frontline service. Two projects were proposed to meet this need, the 4.5th generation fighter aircraft: Su-47 Berkut and the MiG-1.44 Flatpack (although later modernized MiG-35 to 4.5th generation fighter). In 2002, Sukhoi was chosen to lead the design for the new combat aircraft.
The fifth-generation fighter aircraft, Sukhoi PAK FA (T-50) will incorporate technology from both the Su-47 and the MiG 1.44 and when fully developed is intended to replace the MiG-29 and Su-27 in the Russian inventory and serve as the basis of the Sukhoi/HAL FGFA project being developed with India.[7][8] A fifth-generation jet fighter, it is designed to fight against the American F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. The Sukhoi PAK FA performed its first flight 29 January 2010.[9][10] Russia is now constructing a new stealth lightweight multirole fighter – MiG-LMFS (aka Projekt 1.27, MiG-1.27) by Mikoyan aircraft manufacturer. This jet fighter is based on the cancelled MiG 1.44.[11] Russia will also provide India with an advanced version of the Sukhoi-30MKI, which will have fifth generation capabilities and stealth features. India will be giving 18 Sukhoi-30K aircraft to Russia, to replace them with the advanced Sukhoi-30MKI, which is being christened as "Super Sukhoi" that boasts of fifth-generation features.[12]
India is also developing Medium Combat Aircraft, a twin-engine fifth-generation stealth multirole fighter apart from Sukhoi/HAL FGFA project being developed with Russia. The main purpose of this aircraft is to replace the aging SEPECAT Jaguar & Dassault Mirage 2000. Unofficial design work on the MCA has been started.[13]
To counter the Indo-Russian fighter Pakistan and China have signed an Mou to develop a reduced RCS 4.5th generation variant of the JF-17 Thunder.[14]
By the late 1990s, several Chinese fifth-generation fighter programs, grouped under the program codename J-XX or XXJ, were identified by western intelligence sources. PLAAF officials have confirmed the existence of such a program, which they estimate will enter service between 2017–2019.[15][16] Nevertheless, the United States has predicted that it may possess as much as 20 times more "advanced stealth fighters" than the Chinese by 2020.[17] By late 2010, it had emerged that two prototypes (#2001 & 2002) of the Chengdu J-20 had been constructed and were undergoing high-speed taxi trials.[18] The J-20 made its first flight on 11 January 2011.[19]
Turkey has also started a project called TuAF TFX.It is the only Joint Strike Fighter Program member with a program of its own.
South Korea has its own project to build a fifth-generation fighter, called KAI KF-X, while Japan also has project Mitsubishi ATD-X.
The only fifth-generation jet fighter currently in operational service is the F-22 Raptor.[1][20] US fighter manufacturer Lockheed Martin uses "fifth generation fighter" to describe the F-22 and F-35 fighters, with the definition including "advanced stealth", "extreme performance", "information fusion" and "advanced sustainment".[1] Their definition does not include supercruise capability, which has typically been associated with the more advanced modern fighters, but which the F-35 lacks.[21] Lockheed Martin attempted to trademark the term "5th generation fighters" in association with jet aircraft and structural parts thereof,[22] and has a trademark to a logo with the term.[23]
United States military officials have said that Russia and China are far from matching the F-35 and by the time they do, the United States will have moved on to the next level, sixth generation jet fighter.[24]
In order to minimize their radar cross-section (RCS), all fifth-generation fighters use chines instead of standard leading edge extensions and lack canards, though the Sukhoi PAK FA T-50 has engine intake extensions that seem to function somewhat like canards and the Chengdu J-20 designers have chosen the agility enhancements of canards in spite of their poor stealth characteristics.[25] They all have twin canted vertical tails also to minimize side RCS. Most fifth-generation fighters with supermaneuverability achieve it through thrust vectoring.
They all have internal weapon bays in order to avoid high RCS weapon pylons, but they all have external hardpoints on their wings for use on non-stealthy missions, such as the external fuel tanks the F-22 carries when deploying to a new theater.
All fifth-generation fighters have a high percentage of composite materials, in order to reduce RCS and weight.
All revealed fifth-generation fighters use commercial off-the-shelf main processors to directly control all sensors to form a consolidated view of the battlespace with both onboard and networked sensors, while previous generation jet fighters used federated systems where each sensor or pod would present its own readings for the pilot to combine in her own mind a view of the battlespace.[26][27][28] This means that while the F-22A was physically delivered without synthetic aperture radar or situational awareness infra-red search and track it will gain these functions later through software upgrades.[29] However any flaw in these huge software systems can knock out supposedly unrelated aircraft systems and the complexity of a software defined aircraft can lead to a software crisis with additional costs and delays.[30][31]
Sukhoi calls their expert system for sensor fusion the artificial intelligence of the PAK-FA.[32]
An automatic software response to an overheat condition apparently has contributed to at least one fatal crash of a fifth-generation jet fighter.[33]
Fifth generation jet fighters use the newest generation of high performance jet engines and only the American Pratt & Whitney F119 is fully developed. The engines for the F-35 are still under development, the Chinese are dependent on Russian engines, and even the Russians are falling short in the development of the latest jet engines.[34][35]
Fifth generation jet fighters need stealthy augmentor for the afterburners of their jet engines such as those found on the Pratt & Whitney F135 or Pratt & Whitney F119 in order to have a stealthy supersonic aircraft as an afterburner is required to enter into supercruise flight.[36]
Sensor fusion and automatic target tracking are projected to give the fifth-generation jet fighter pilot a view of the battlespace superior to that seen by AWACS aircraft that may be forced back from the front lines by increasing threats. Therefore tactical control could be shifted forwards to the pilots in the fighters.[37] Michael Wynne, former Secretary of the United States Air Force, has suggested elimination of the Boeing E-3 Sentry and Boeing E-8 Joint STARS in favor of more F-35s, simply because so much effort is being made by the Russians and Chinese to target these platforms that are built to commercial airliner standards.[38]
However, the more powerful sensors, such as AESA radar which is able to operate in multiple modes at the same time, may present too much information for the single pilot in the F-22, F-35 and T-50 to adequately use. The Sukhoi/HAL FGFA offers a return to the two-seat configuration common in fourth generation strike fighters.[39]
The use of the term fifth-generation fighter has been criticized by companies whose products do not conform to these particular specifications, such as Boeing and Eurofighter, and by other commentators such as Bill Sweetman:[40] "it is misleading to portray the F-22 and F-35 as a linear evolution in fighter design. Rather, they are a closely related pair of outliers, relying on a higher level of stealth as a key element of survivability – as the Lockheed YF-12 and Mikoyan MIG-25, in the 1960s, relied on speed and altitude."[41]
The United States Navy and Boeing have placed the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in a "next generation" fighter category along with the F-22 and F-35,[42] as the Super Hornet has a "fifth generation" AESA radar, modest radar cross-section (RCS) reductions and sensor fusion.[43][44] A senior USAF pilot has complained about fifth-generation claims for the Super Hornet: "The whole point to fifth generation is the synergy of stealth, fusion and complete situational awareness. The point about fifth-generation aircraft is that they can do their mission anywhere – even in sophisticated integrated air defense [IADS] environments. If you fly into heavy IADS with a great radar and sensor fusion, but no stealth, you will have complete situational awareness of the guy that kills you."[45] Michael “Ponch” Garcia of Raytheon has said that the addition of their AESA radars to the Super Hornet provides "90 percent of your fifth-generation capability at half the cost."[46] And a top Boeing official has called their newest 4.5th generation fighters "stealth killers".[47]
In response to the use of the "fifth generation" term, Eurofighter has made a fifth-generation checklist placing different weights on the various capabilities, and arguing that the application of the label to strike aircraft such as Lockheed-Martin's F-35 is ill advised, and even inconsistent with the aircraft's specifications. Meanwhile, Eurofighter adds "net-enabled operations" as noteworthy requirement and de-emphasizes full-scope low observability as only one factor in survivability.[48] In the same article Eurofighter GmbH appear to acknowledge the remarkable performance of Lockheed Martin's F-22 aircraft, while demonstrating that labels as simple as "fifth generation" may easily be devised to serve the interests of the writer.
Richard A. Bitzinger of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, a former consultant for the American RAND think tank suggests that Western Europe's "failure" to develop a fifth-generation jet fighter may reduce these former leaders in the market to also-ran status as the world's attention shifts to the competition between the United States and Asian powers.[49] Canadians Alex Wilner and Marco Wyss of the Center for Security Studies claim that Europe's failure to "keep up" with the F-35 may make the European jet fighter manufacturers close up shop.[50]