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US Air Force Secretary Kendall describes potential Next-Generation Air Dominance concepts

By Zach Rosenberg |

A Lockheed Martin NGAD concept image, initially published in 2020. Following the USAF's NGAD programme re-evaluation and pause, any such bid by the company is likely to differ in appearance and technology level. (Lockheed Martin)

US Air Force (USAF) Secretary Frank Kendall explained how the service arrived at its current Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) concept and described the alternatives it considered for the first time in public on 13 January. The discussion, held at the Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), was Kendall's last public engagement before his tenure ends on 19 January.

Kendall also appeared to confirm that multiple experimental aircraft (X-planes) were involved in the NGAD development programme, adding to the 2020 disclosure of a single classified demonstrator by Will Roper, the Assistant Secretary of the USAF for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics at the time.

The NGAD “technology programme was put on contract in about 2015”, said Kendall. “It produced X-planes that demonstrated the technologies that we were looking for, and the air force wrote requirements for an aircraft that is essentially an F-22 replacement. And for the last few years, that's what we've been working on.”

“We're now at the point where we commit to going forward, to finish design and go into production of that [aircraft] or not,” Kendall continued. “And two things made us rethink that platform. One was budgets. Under the current budget levels that we have, it was very, very difficult to see how we could possibly afford that platform. We needed another USD20 billion plus for [research and development], and then we had to start buying airplanes at a cost of multiples of an F-35 that we were never going to afford more than in small numbers.”

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