Forget China’s Stealth Fighter: America Flew a 6th-Generation ‘NGAD’ Years Back

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Key Points and Summary: The U.S. Air Force reached a sixth-generation milestone years before China’s recent unveilings, with the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) prototype flight in 2020.

-NGAD prioritizes range, stealth, and advanced technologies, including adaptive engines and AI-enhanced sensors, enabling unmatched situational awareness and potential unmanned team operations. While the NGAD sets a high benchmark for future air dominance, its $300 million unit cost poses significant challenges, leading to program delays.

-Although China’s advancements are notable, the U.S. remains ahead in sixth-generation fighter development, reflecting a robust lead in stealth, AI, and operational integration. America’s dominance in air combat is far from over.

NGAD vs. China’s Stealth Fighters: Who’s Winning the Race?

Yes, defense media is going crazy about China’s new and recently unveiled sixth-generation fighters, but the fact seems to have been lost that the United States military hit that milestone several years ago.

Recent videos of several new and seemingly advanced Chinese fighters—presumably sixth-generation jets—have made waves on social media.

Commentators have caustically decided the United States’ investments in the F-35 fighter program, in light of China’s recent presumed advancements in fighter technology, are not worth continuing.

What these conversations miss, however, is the fact that the United States Air Force flew its sixth-generation fighter years ago: the Next Generation Air Dominance program. While it was a prototype, and surely much has changed over the years, clearly, America seems ahead of China. 

“We’ve already built and flown a full-scale flight demonstrator in the real world, and we broke records in doing it,” then head of the U.S. Air Force, Will Roper, told Defense News back in 2020. “We are ready to go and build the next-generation aircraft in a way that has never happened before.”

NGAD: Next Generation Air Dominance, Explained 

The Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program aims to be a significant step up—a new generation—compared to previous fighter aircraft.

One of the central pillars of the NGAD design is an exceptionally long range, necessitated by the vast distances of the Indo-Pacific. Central to an unusually long range are large internal fuel reserves and adaptive cycle engines that achieve superior fuel efficiency.

The NGAD’s engines are expected to generate significantly more electrical output than current propulsion systems to power directed energy, or laser, weapons.

Stealth is another vitally important factor of the NGAD program. While the F-22 is currently the stealthiest fighter in service, the NGAD will be significantly more challenging to detect than the F-22, thanks to a tailless design, newer stealth coatings, and other advanced materials.

The NGAD will also likely incorporate measures to reduce its infrared signature by limiting engine exhaust temperatures.

However, one of the truly revolutionary aspects of the NGAD program will be the jet’s sensor suite, enhanced thanks to artificial intelligence. Harnessing AI will afford pilots previously unachievable levels of situational awareness to improve manned decision-making.

Flying in tandem with unmanned platforms, the NGAD’s potential to dominate opposing fighters is high.

Timeline and Development

The NGAD program development began in the early 2010s under the Air Force’s Air Superiority 2030 initiative. By 2020 — fully four years ago — the Air Force’s then chief, Will Roper, announced that a full-scale demonstrator had flown.

If current timelines hold, the NGAD program is expected to achieve initial operational capability, IOC, sometime in the 2030s, when the F-22 Raptor will be at least partially retired.

NGAD and the Cost Factor

There is, of course, one giant problem: cost.

In fact, the program is on pause right now due to this issue. The NGAD fighter was expected to cost a whopping $300 million per plane. While the U.S. Air Force seems to be working on the issue, it looks as if the Trump Administration will need to figure out the best path forward. 

Implications

Some may argue that China is making significant strides in not only military aviation but also stealth technology, artificial intelligence, and other areas of relevance to military technology. And while the recent test flights of new sixth-generation fighters by China are certainly of note, a qualitative analysis of Chinese and American sixth-generation fighters is not currently possible. 

China may be narrowing the gap in its position behind the United States. Test flying a sixth-generation fighter is undoubtedly a significant achievement. But it is also just as certainly premature to declare that the United States has lost the race for the next generation of fighter aircraft. 

About the Author: Caleb Larson 

Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.