Fighter

One of the world's first sixth-generation fighters has moved closer to its first flight, as BAE Systems unveils the prototype Combat Air Flying Demonstrator, now under construction for the Global Combat Air Programme by Britain, Italy, and Japan.

It looks like the age of the robotic warrior is here. The RAF has revealed that a radar-jamming combat drone called StormShroud will be deployed to support Britain's F-35B Lightning II and Typhoon fighters using lessons learned from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Airbus Defence and Space has taken the wraps off its fighter cockpit of tomorrow that it's helping to develop as part of Europe's Enhanced Pilot Interfaces & Interactions for Fighter Cockpit (EPIIC) project to build interfaces for next-gen warplanes.

The US Air Force has announced that it will go ahead with the production of the F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter. Expected to enter service by the end of the decade, it will replace the F-22 Raptor as America's air supremacy fighter.

On December 26, 2024, in broad daylight, China took to the skies with the test flights of two presumed sixth-generation delta-wing fighter jets. The more documented of the two, the Chengdu delta-wing craft, has been tentatively identified as the J-36.

At this year's Farnborough International Airshow, Britain, Italy and Japan are showing off the latest concept model of the sixth-generation fighter being developed by the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), highlighting its advanced aerodynamics.

In order to protect the F-16 fighter from modern electronic threats, Northrop Grumman put its AN/ALQ-257 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite up against "attacks" from the US Air Force Laboratory Intelligence Validated Emulator testing system.

With NATO now open to supplying Ukraine with modern Western fighter planes like the Typhoon or the F-16, the question is, will this change the game or is it already too late? New Atlas takes a look at the Ukraine air war.

The sixth generation of supersonic stealth fighter planes is on its way. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed that the British-led Future Combat Air System initiative's Tempest fighter program will fly a combat air demonstrator by 2027.

Aerospace company Leonardo and aviation services company 2Excel are modifying a commercial Boeing 757 to act as a flying laboratory to test technology for the 6th-generation Tempest fighter jet currently being developed.

Sukhoi has unveiled a mock-up of its latest fifth-generation fighter aircraft at the MAKS-21 air show near Moscow. Called the Checkmate SU-75, it's designed as an "inexpensive" rival to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

Saab and Varjo Technologies are developing new low-cost, high-resolution mixed-reality tech for flight simulators to train fighter pilots. Called Bionic Display, it cuts the computing power required by taking advantage of the way the human eye works.