(Luft) Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD)

[Schneemann]

New Next Generation Air Dominance ‘Fighter’ Renderings From Lockheed

Two new pieces of concept art appear to show a possible configuration for the manned component of the NGAD future air combat program. [...] Lockheed Martin has provided new artwork showing a notional manned sixth-generation combat aircraft component of the Next Generation Air Dominance program, or NGAD, the multi-faceted U.S. effort to field next-generation tactical air combat capabilities. The stealthy tailless aircraft is shown refueling from Lockheed’s LMXT tanker concept, which the artwork was intended primarily to promote. You can read more about NGAD’s potentially game-changing architecture here, but suffice it to say, a manned tactical aircraft component is very much planned to be at its center.

By showing an NGAD concept as essentially an adjunct to the new tanker aircraft it’s promoting to the Air Force, Lockheed Martin appears to skillfully sidestep making any explicit references to what’s a highly secretive program. However, there’s no doubt that the tailless aircraft is intended to serve at least as a stand-in for NGAD. [...]

The twin engines are buried in the fuselage and exhaust over the upper surfaces of the airframe — a known low-observable design tactic used to block the infrared plume and radar reflective exhaust areas from sensors on the ground and from most other aspects — with two-dimensional diamond-shaped nozzles. These are especially apparent in a rear-aspect view of the aircraft, seen below, in which it’s also shown taking on fuel from an LMXT.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/ne...m-lockheed

Schneemann