The Next Era of Warfare: Next-Gen Planes

       As America's air fleet ages, new tech comes along, requiring those at the Pentagon to find new ways to incorporate those technologies or make them obsolete by building better planes. However, to maintain air superiority, sometimes one has to stay 2, 3 or 5 steps ahead of competitors. These net-generation planes will allow America to do just that.

F-35

        The most known plane in this list, the F-35, is the most advanced 5th Generation fighter in the world. Developed by Lockheed Martin, it will eventually be supporting every branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. A major issue of the F-35 project has been the cost. At 150 million a pop and suspicions that it wouldn't perform out in the field, the military was cautious to spend large amounts of money to develop and obtain these new Joint Strike Fighters. Although the price is currently very high, once mass production begins the price per unit will decrease.  The original idea of the F-35 was to build the same air frame, mass-produce it, and put different components into it. And when people compare it to the F-22 or other, different planes that are better than it in certain areas, remember that it was built as a multirole fighter, able to support troops on the ground, be 2nd only to the F-22 in air-to-air engagements, and be deployed as carrier aircraft. The results were the F-35A, F-35B and F-35C , which would be similar to the extent that they could have the same fuselage, but still so different that that they would be able to be used in different branches of the US military. The F-35A was built as a normal fighter aircraft but with stealth and top modern radar systems, to be sold to other countries (currently sold to Turkey and Australia, to among others). The F-35B was created as a stealth STOVL (Short takeoffs, vertical landings), to be used by the Marines so it could take off and land from short runways and preliminary bases in foreign countries and on their amphibious assault ships. Finally, the F-35C was built to perform from aircraft carriers with its CATOBAR (Catapult Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery) feature and larger wings.

        The F-35 was designed as a 5th generation stealth multirole strike fighter to maintain America's air dominance over the next three decades.

X-47B/C
        The second next-gen plane on this list is actually a drone. Built by Northrop Grumman, this drone is a semi-autonomous unmanned air combat vehicle designed for carrier-based operations. It is currently able to land on an aircraft carrier autonomously, operate with manned aircraft, and autonomously refuel while in the air.

It has was awarded with the 57th Annual Laureate Award for “extraordinary achievements” in aeronautics and propulsion hosted by Aviation Week. On April 9th of 2014, the National Aeronautic Association selected Northrop Grumman, the United States Navy, and the X-47B's development team as the joint recipients of the 2013 Collier Trophy for excellence in aeronautic technology. Future development of this project is into the X-47C, a larger version for the Navy's UCLASS project.

SR-72
        The SR-71 was the fastest air-breathing jet ever made, and for a long time nothing could catch it. However, with advances in radar and other military technologies, its advantages waned, eventually becoming obsolete and retiring in 1999. But now, as regional threats grow and portable surface-to-air missiles evolve, engineers must again set out to build the fastest military jet on the planet. This time, it will take the form of a 4,000-mile-per-hour reconnaissance drone with strike capability. Known as the SR-72, the aircraft will evade assault, take spy photos, and attack targets at speeds of up to Mach 6. That’s twice as fast as its predecessor.
        However, the technology that would make these things possible hasn't been created yet. Skunkworks, the makers of the original SR-71, has been designing the SR-72 for the last seven years. It will require a hybrid propulsion system that combines a conventional, off-the-shelf turbo jet that can take the plane from runway to Mach 3 with a hypersonic ramjet/scramjet that will push it the rest of the way. Its body will have to withstand the extreme heat of hypersonic flight, when air friction alone could melt steel. Its bombs will have to hit targets possibly 80,000 feet below while traveling at Mach 6. The calculations alone would take a supercomputer, which would have to be small and light enough to fit in the plane and durable enough to operate at high speeds and extreme temperatures. This alone would take a surge in computer design. Lockheed says the craft could be deployed by 2030. Once it is, the plane’s ability to cover one mile per second means it could reach any location on any continent in an hour—not that you’ll see it coming.

All of these aircraft are pushing the boundaries of what planes can do, whether it be in speed, technology, or AI.

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References:
Popular Science magazine + Website
Department of Defense