Mysterious US jet with 'next-gen technology' has been built and flown: Report

In a major boost to national security, the United States Air Force has confirmed earlier this week to have secretly built and flown at least one prototype of its startling next-generation fighter jet. A top US Air Force acquisition official confirmed to Defense News on September 14 about the mystery jet that is expected to send shock waves to the defence community that last saw the first flight of an experimental aircraft during the battle for the Joint Strike Fighter contract at least two decades ago. 

Even though the US Air Force’s flight of a demonstrator was not expected for years, the service took its ‘next generation air dominance’, or NGAD fighter from selection process to a virtual version to reportedly flying at least one prototype in just one year. Comparatively, it had taken at least 20 years to develop the ‘fifth generation’ F-35 joint strike fighter from initial studies in 1996 to being fully operational in 2016. 

The Defense News quoted the USAF’s acquisition leader, William Roper saying that the full-scale NGAD demonstrated its maiden test flight with mission systems onboard. The mere speed of the entire development of the ‘sixth generation’ fighter jet demonstrated how rapidly the United States can produce cutting-edge technology. What many media reports are denoting as the ‘x-plane’, is also a demonstrator of technology that is not yet an operational combat capability. 

Read - CDC Chief Says Face Masks May Provide Better Protection Against COVID-19 Than Vaccine

Read - More Than 20 Workers Hurt In Texas Crane Accident

Roper suggests ‘pretty fast’ move to production

Despite the technology not being in the operational combat capability, Roper reportedly suggested that going down a digital development method would allow the US Air Force to move into the actual production of the next-gen jets “pretty fast”. Ahead of the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference, Will Roper said in the exclusive interview with the Defense News that the service has broken all records by the test flight of its prototype and they are ready to build the aircraft ‘in a way that has never happened before’. However, he declined to comment on the number of prototype aircraft that have been flown or which contractors were behind its manufacturing. 

Read - Trump Appeals Order Blocking Exclusion In District Drawing

Read - Native American Groups Sue South Dakota Over Voting Rights

Image: Representative/Unsplash