Blown Slick Series #3
Seeming necessary for underpinning all further Blown Slick posts, a summary of the “generations” of jet tactical fast mover aircraft has been provided as a separate page found in the header – 5 Generations of Fighters
For the future, both the air-ground “attack” missions and the air-air “fighter” missions will be carried out by multi-role strike fighters, and steadily evolving towards all or a high percentage of 5th Generation types.
The Air Force is moving towards an all stealth fighter wing with F-22’s and F-35A’s, the Marines are replacing their Harriers with F-35B’s, and the Navy is merging the C model with its current mixed variant Hornet carrier airwings. The graphic above displays not only the US stealth 5th generation aircraft but the Russian TU-50, the Chinese J-30 and the in design Japanese Shinshin. Fifth generation fighters are characterized by-in-large: 1)use of jet engines that affect maneuverability; 2) sophisticated high software level avionics; 3) starting design requirement as multi-role capable; and design driven by 4) stealth.
No matter the mix of 4 and 4.5 Generation fighters, the inclusion of these aircraft will heavily impact deployment, campaign planning and tactical employment for multiple countries in their application of airpower. Blown Slick as a series could not be continued without this operational thread weaving its way in and out of the various offerings.
Again see: 5 Generations of Fighters
