By due I mean its almost certainly already out there.
There have been 5 generation of jets since the 1940s. That is an average of one jet generation every 16.8 years.
5th Generation began in 2005. It's been 19.5 years now.
What to expect in a 6th generation aircraft:
Honestly, I think its going to be an everything jet. In the sense that it would be able to do everything any specialized jet in the 5th gen could do, along with having more automation and a possible no pilot mode where they can be flown without a pilot from another location or giving full autonomy to built in sensors.
In terms of elevation the jet will likely be limited to 50,000 ft just like the previous 2-3 generations of jets. Although I am hoping for an upgrade to 60,000 ft so that there is a feeling of scaling up.
It should also be faster than the current generation of jets, which is generally going at 1.6 Mach speed. That is around 1,200 miles per hour.
Hopefully this next generation we get something that can move at speeds of 1,500+ miles per hour.
The primary issue is that the human body can only handle so many Gs of gravitational force on the body and the faster a jet is moving the more Gs of force the human body is getting hit by.
The most convenient solution is to remove the pilot altogether and move on to autonomous jets or jets piloted outside the plane itself for 6th generation aircraft.
Conclusion:
There is a hardline limit on passenger craft speeds due to how many Gs of force the human body can comfortably handle.
It's not a tech issue, it's a biology issue.
Only a spaceship would at this point be able to provide faster travel for passengers in the aviation industry, as a spaceship leaves the atmosphere and lowers the amounts of Gs of force suffered by the passengers.
Robots will fight future wars at the limits of human biology combined with technology are reached.
The only way to make better soldiers now is to biologically enhance them.
We will see active biological enhancement of soldiers in the next generation followed by replacement with robots over the course of this century.
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I've got news for you, the US cannot afford to develop a F-35 replacement right now. They're having a lot of problems holding on to what they have as it is.
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Why is that?
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Their industrial base has evaporated, they've gone from many contractors to a few that jack their prices WAY up, there's a shitload of bloat in the bureaucracy, and these expensive as frick weapons platforms are not right to fight the many wars they are in right now. Look at the war they lost against the Houthis earlier this year, firing million dollar missiles at $20k drones means you are going to lose if they will just stick it out.
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The US is still adapting.
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That's great for the South Koreans but a big part of the purpose of the US military-industrial complex is funneling money to various people along the way. Getting a cost-efficient and effective weapons platform from another nation simply is not an option here.
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The US buys patriot missile systems from Israel.
All they have to do is increase the surcharge for the person accepting the deliveries from the South Koreans.
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Two problems I see:
Come on now, you know what's up
No way everyone else stands by while one dude gets to rake in money. The US will probably try to develop their own system first, and then may quietly go to the South Koreans if they have no other choice. But they'll waste a frickload of money first, guaranteed.
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I need you to fail 6 times as fast as you can, as expensive as you can, then take an L and go to the South Koreans after that.
?
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Okay, that might work since it involves spending an even more insane amount of money.
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the secret is to dump the F-35 program and start with a clean sheet, but not let ANY of the people involved in the process of setting goals for the F-35 have a seat at the table.
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Isn't this more of less what the F-35 was compared to the previous generation though? It was a speed downgrade from the F-22 ofc but then again speed isn't the only important feature, and we still have F-22's when we need a true air superiority fighter, but we really don't need THAT many of those, the whole point is that they can shoot down many enemy aircraft without suffering a loss.
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Yeah, so next gen should be an upgrade over f35 combined with an upgrade over the f-22 in capability along with whatever it brings to the table on its own.
Having one replacement for both the f22 and the f35 is cheaper than keeping both of them around ain't it?
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Depends. A knife and a pair of scissors is probably always gonna be cheaper than a Swiss army knife
2 in one doesn't mean half the price.
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True. But I bet the swiss army knife is cheaper than all of its components bought individually?
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Sure but there's real tradeoffs to be made. That's why we decided rather than try to make the f35 better than the f22 in all aspects we'd just keep some f22s around.
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Yeah but the only way you could make something better than the f35 is to make a new jet that has the capabilities of both the f35 and the f22 because you cannot make the jet faster with a human pilot inside.
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F-22 is finna retire but at least it did get one air to air kill (a balloon) finally
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Why haven't you gotten a government contract yet?
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Never applied.
They already know all this.
I think the reason 6th gen is taking so long is that because they reached out to all the low hanging fruit, and they literally have to wait for the AI and automation industry to mature enough for them to be able to design the next generation of fighter jets.
It's a Howard Stark saying the technology of his time isn't quite there yet moment.
The main thing I want to see from the military industrial complex is the full maturation of anti-nuke tech so that the world can once again move towards all out war.
We have become too stable to grow as a people. Our technology is doing all the growth for us, and if it weren't for olympic athletes breaking new world records every few years, one would think that human civilization itself has come to an end point and cannot improve any further.
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You don't need to apply if you are good enough
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Ef
Aye where is my invitation to the overpaid r-slur squad?
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Computer blue
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What?
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Sorry, you didn't make it
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