AIRWEETS.com
AI may speed up the transition between fighter aircraft generations
Catalin Pogaci, January 2025
If you browsed through a military aviation magazine or surfed an aviation website, you definitely encountered terms such as ‘4th or 5th generation fighter.’ If there is a 4th and a 5th generation, there definitely were a 2nd and a 3rd, and, of course, a 1st. What are they? Can military machines really be cataloged into generations?
Future Combat Air System
F-35 above and F-22 below
If we judge by certain criteria and disputes, they seem more like marketing concepts rather than authentic boundaries between technological eras. Still, the differences are palpable and visible.
At first, propulsion made the difference—the jet engine came to power. Then came speed. Military aircraft broke the sound barrier, and this characteristic became desirable by most air forces. Then came the radar and missiles. Then came the electronics and maneuverability.
Then came stealth, a feature that still created an orthodox generation of machines.
And then came the AI. This changed or will change the game.
What does AI bring extra? It brings time. More precisely, it pushes the fast-forward button when it comes to developing new programs.
Until recently, it took around twenty years for a fighter project to mature. This period included the design and development stage, building the prototype, testing, improving, addressing operational issues, manufacturing the first batches, integrating fighting doctrines and tactics, rectifying flaws, and upgrading to new variants. The F-35, for example, is already a(n)(almost) twenty-year-old project. The prototype took to the skies in December 2006.
The F-22, the first 5th generation fighter, is almost thirty.
The published intention is to keep the F-35 in service until the 70s or even longer. But will this be true?
In December 2024, the J-36 stormed the internet. If the aircraft truly is what its manufacturer claims it is, meaning a 6th generation fighter prototype, it means things went forward faster than predicted. Of course, there may still be years of development ahead, but this still brings in a question: if a sixth-generation aircraft will enter service around 2030 and will mature during the next 10 years or less, why an already obsolete by then program like the F-35, or the F-22 would still be supported?
The main feature of AI is that the smarter it becomes, the faster it becomes, and the resulting new technologies it may create will simply outpace the human mind.
What else may come then? The 7th generation fighter? Space flight combined with atmospheric flight and the accompanying array of armament (lasers for outer space and missiles for the atmosphere), buddy drones (the already conceptualized ‘loyal wingmen’)? The 8th generation fighter, the true Starfighter?
Powerful AI and 3D printing bring us closer and faster to the SF films. Interesting times are approaching, and because of AI, we may soon see fighter aircraft models emerging at the same rate they did during the First World War. And most probably, they’ll be pilotless.
Bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_fighter_generations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Combat_Air_System