Boeing's 6th gen fighter

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/6THG013008.xml&headline=Boeing%20Plans%20Sixth%20Generation%20Fighter%20With%20Block%203%20Super%20Hornet&channel=defense

To be available circa 2024, the sixth generation aircraft would feature a combat radius of more than 1,000 miles and stealth against a much wider spectrum of radars.

i think this ‘x generation’ talk is getting out of hand. Longer range and slightly better stealth does not a generation make

The idea is that customers could buy 4.5 generation Super Hornets (perhaps 4.75 generation with the planned extra forward stealth and extra range of Block 3 aircraft) and then switch to a new, sixth generation faster than if they bought the fifth generation Joint Strike Fighter.

good luck with that

the USAF is happy with the F-22 and the USN has enough funding problems that it isn’t going to fund a new fighter program by itself

this means that Boeing is going to have to self-fund the development (very expensive) and then rely on export sales to recoup their costs

of course the main point of foreign governments buying American is for commonality with American forces. Buying something from the US that US doesn’t operate sort of defeats the purpose (see F-20 Tigershark)

i also loved this gem:

“The [Navy] C-version of the F-35 doesn’t buy you a lot that the Super Hornet doesn’t provide,” says Bob Gower, Boeing’s vice president for F/A-18 and EA-18G programs.

except for longer range and greater stealth

“The longer range and greater stealth of the F-35C are meaningless, instead wait for our super-duper 6th gen fighter that has . . . longer range and greater stealth”