Sixth-generation fighter

A sixth-generation fighter is a conceptualized class of jet fighter aircraft design more advanced than the fifth-generation jet fighters that are currently in service and development. Several countries have announced the development of a national sixth-generation aircraft program while others have joined collaborative multinational projects (such as the Global Combat Air Programme and the FCAS) in order to spread development and procurement costs. The first sixth-generation fighters are expected to enter service in the 2030s.

Sixth-generation fighter concepts generally share some assumptions. One is that fifth-generation aircraft will not be good enough at future air-to-air combat, surviving the anti-access/area denial environment, and ground support/attack. Another is that sixth-gen planes will do less close-in dogfighting, but beyond-visual-range (BVR) air-to-air missiles will remain important. Others include the need to handle ground support, cyber warfare and even space warfare missions; and the need to be able to direct or fight with more numerous fleets of satellite drones and ground sensors in a high-traffic networked environment, allowing for greater insights through data-informed decision-making.

These and other assumptions suggest these design characteristics:

The feasibility of some of these characteristics remains uncertain. Development time and cost are likely to prove major factors in laying out practical roadmaps. Specific requirements are anticipated by some observers to crystallize around 2025.

On 6 May 2024, during a press trip at the Embraer factory in the city of São José dos Campos, São Paulo, the Director of Industrial Cooperation of Saab in Brazil, Luiz Hernandez, stated that Brazil will develop a sixth-generation fighter based on technologies from the Saab JAS 39 Gripen, already in production in the country. The project would be a cooperation between Embraer and the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology. The Vice President of Embraer's defence division, Walter Pinto Junior, confirmed the idealization of the project, and commented that "for Embraer, fighter aviation is a possibility of taking higher flights", but highlighted that the company still needs a "business plan, to make a viable long-term project".

After successfully developing the 5th-generation J-20 stealth fighter, China was then working on the development of a next-generation aircraft. In January 2019, Dr. Wang Haifeng, chief designer of the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) announced that China had begun pre-research on sixth-generation aircraft, predicting that the program would come to fruition by 2035.

In 2018, Chengdu Aerospace Corporation reportedly submitted eight proposals for the sixth-generation fighter design, and four designs were tested in low-altitude wind tunnels. In the same year, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) also reportedly developed prototypes for the next-generation aircraft.

In October 2021, a fighter aircraft with a tailless design was spotted in Chengdu Aircraft Corporation facilities.