The U.S. Navy expects its future F/A-XX sixth-generation stealth fighters to offer just a 25 percent increase in range over the existing tactical combat jets in its carrier air wings. The disclosure comes as a surprise given that the service consistently makes it clear that extending the reach of its carrier strike groups is a critical priority as the range of expected threats also continues to grow. F/A-XX is also being designed around the availability of the organic aerial refueling capabilities that will come with the carrier-based MQ-25 Stingray tanker drone, which is expected to have significant range as TWZ has just explored in a new in-depth feature.
Navy Rear Adm. Michael “Buzz” Donnelly, head of the Air Warfare Division within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, talked about the expected range and other features of the F/A-XX with TWZ and other outlets on the sidelines of the Navy League’s Sea Air Space 2025 exhibition earlier today. Following the reported ejection of Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman are now said to be face-to-face in the F/A-XX competition, the winner of which is expected to be announced soon.
F/A-XX will offer “probably over 125 percent of the range that we’re seeing today to give us better flexibility operational reach,” Donnelly said. “So it will definitely have longer inherent range.”
Donnelly was subsequently asked explicitly if this meant “25 percent more capacity before you start adding in refueling,” to which he said “yeah, affirm[itive].”
Donnelly did not offer any specifics, but the F-35C carrier-based variant of the Joint Strike Fighter has the longest combat radius of any tactical jet in the Navy’s current carrier air wings, which U.S. military sources put at around 670 nautical miles (close to 1,241 kilometers). This, in turn, would put the F/A-XX’s expected maximum combat radius at roughly 837.5 nautical miles (just over 1,551 kilometers)
F/A-XX will, “of course, have refuel ability, and all of our air wings, our tactics, and what we’re designing in the future considers organic refueling capability, so the F/A-XX will be able to leverage that,” Donnelly added. “With refueling, you could say that’s indefinite [range], as long as refueling is available.”
Otherwise, F/A-XX will be able to “penetrate threat airspace. That will pace the threat that we see into the future beyond 2040. So that’s what we see as essential as the threat builds out its ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] capabilities and increases kinetic capabilities,” Donnelly also said. The sixth-generation carrier-based fighter “will also, with the integration of AI [artificial intelligence] and other technical advantages, allow us to have increased battle space management. And it will be our next platform that, instead of being man-in-the-loop, will truly be man-on-the-loop, and allow us to have fully integrated architecture with our unmanned systems that we’re going to be fielding.”
Donnelly specifically mentioned teaming F/A-XX with future Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), which could include types operated by the Navy and the U.S. Air Force, as well as larger uncrewed aircraft like the MQ-25. Acting as aerial ‘quarterback’ for drones has long been a key expected mission for F/A-XX, as well as the Air Force’s forthcoming F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) combat jet from Boeing. The Navy also has a now long-standing goal to deploy carrier air wings that are at least 60 percent uncrewed by the 2040s. The MQ-25 is set to serve as a ‘pathfinder’ for expanding uncrewed aircraft operations from Navy carriers and could itself evolve into a long-range multi-mission platform as you can read more about in detail here.
As mentioned already, the revelation today about the F/A-XX’s range is particularly notable. Donnelly himself described the jet’s expected tactical reach as “an essential attribute,” despite it being a modest increase over existing capabilities. This all might also point a focus on higher performance or an aircraft that could be truncated in some way to help lower costs.
Regardless, the Navy is already facing a threat ecosystem full of potential adversaries, especially near-peer ones like China, that can engage friendly forces in the air, at sea, and on the ground, further and further away. Just in January, the Air Force released a report that warned about the projected fielding of anti-air missiles with ranges of up to 1,000 miles by 2050.
For the Navy, this increases the demand to extend the reach of the carrier air wing to help reduce the vulnerability of the entire strike group. Many had expected F/A-XX to have a much larger combat radius than the service’s existing tactical jets for this reason, which would help further extend the buffer against future threats. The Navy has separately expressed an interest in finding new ways to extend the unrefueled reach of its F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and its EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jets.
“Carriers, with their ability to move over 700 miles a day, creating 1.5 million square miles of uncertainty, that is an element of survivability that will continue to be extremely important,” Donnelly also said at a separate panel discussion at the Sea Air Space 2025 exhibition today. “And what will increase is the range and reach that our future air wings will provide.”
“Today, we have the ability, with the combination of the F-18 [F/A-18E/F] and the EA-18G Growler, as well as the F-35 and our weapons for an operational range that provides us an area of effect of over eight million square miles,” he continued. “And when we look to the 2040s, with the integration of MQ-25 to provide organic refueling, platforms such as F/A-XX with extended range, the weapons we expect to field at that time, we expect that area of effect [to] increase to over 11 million square miles.”
“That area of effect is important, because that’s also the area of uncertainty for the air wing that enhances the survivability of the strike group, but it’s also the tactical reality combined with the attributes of those platforms that allow us to penetrate into complex [environments], [with] ubiquitous ISR that the threat will continue to field, and be selective in our targeting so that we can be efficient and persist longer,” the rear admiral added.
More clarity about the F/A-XX’s overall capabilities, as well as how the aircraft fits into the Navy’s broader carrier strike group plans, is likely to emerge when the winner of the competition is finally announced. We do know now that the service expects the sixth-generation stealth fighters, at least currently, to bring a relatively minor increase in unrefueled range to its future carrier air wings.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com