The Navy's F/A-XX Problem Won't Go Away

What You Need to Know: The U.S. Navy's F/A-XX program, aimed at developing a sixth-generation multirole fighter to replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and complement the F-35C, has seen its budget slashed by Congress, delaying its progress.

-Despite these financial setbacks, the F/A-XX is designed to feature advanced sensors, lethality, and integration with unmanned systems. While it shares some challenges with the U.S. Air Force's NGAD program, the Navy's project may benefit from shared technologies such as next-gen engines.

-Though facing budget cuts, F/A-XX development still appears more promising than its Air Force counterpart, NGAD.

F/A-XX: The U.S. Navy’s Sixth-Generation Fighter Faces Budget Battles

There’s something to be said about the so-called “X factor,” whether it’s The X-Men of the Marvel Comics world, the X-Games, “The X-Files”, or Danny David AKA Mr. X.

The X factor has also been big in military aviation, as in X-planes, i.e. experimental planes, such as the Bell X-1 that became the first aircraft to break the sound barrier, with the late great Chuck Yeager at the controls, and the rocket-powered North American X-15, which, at Mach 6.7, is the fastest aircraft ever, even faster than the air-breathing Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, which flew at Mach 3.2. But this time we’re talking about a different sort of “X-plane,” one with two X’s instead of just one, and with those key letters in the suffix instead of the prefix of the aircraft’s alphanumeric label. 

Say hello to the U.S. Navy’s (USN) F/A-XX prospective sixth-generation fighter plane program.  

F/A-XX Initial History & Specification Requirements 

The USN identified the requirement for the FA/XX back in 2008, following that up with a formal request for information (RFI) in April 2012. The concept was envisioned as a multirole air superiority fighter that would 

(1) replace the fourth Generation F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler aircraft in the 2030s, and 

(2) complement the fifth Generation F-35C Lightning II stealth fighter, thus living up to the dictum of early twentieth-century Italian airpower theorist General Giulio Douhet that “Flexibility is the key to airpower.”

In essence, it would be the Navy’s counterpart to the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) sixth-generation program, which in its own right is facing an uncertain future due to the U.S. Air Force USAF top brass balking at its proposed price tag. Boeing, the maker of the Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin (maker of the Lightning II, and Northrop Grumman have all submitted proposals for the FA/XX program. 

As Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Lisa Franchetti was quoted, “We expect that sixth-generation platform to be able to have advanced sensors, advanced lethality, advanced range, and being able to integrate with manned and unmanned capabilities together. That’s one of the things, as we learn from the Air Force and the work they’re doing, to integrate that with what we know that we need to be able to do.’” 

Trouble In Paradise? What’s Going Wrong? 

Sounds all well and good, right? So is there a potential holdup, and if so, why? With so many up-and-coming military technologies such as the aforementioned USAF NGAD, it all boils down to dollars and sense, as explained by my colleague Harrison Kass, “Still, the Navy has had its budget problems; earlier this year, one billion dollars was delayed from the F/A-XX program to focus instead on near-term readiness. Congress could yet cut the F/A-XX program further.” 

To be more precise, earlier this year, the Senate Armed Services Committee proposed a 90% funding cut, reducing the budget to under $54 million. 

F/A-XX: The Way Forward? 

That said, comparatively speaking, the future still looks brighter for the F/A-XX than it does for the NGAD. To cite Mr. Kass one more time, “To save costs, the NGAD and the F/A-XX will likely share certain technologies, perhaps the same engine. “According to the most recent plans, NGAD’s engine was to come from the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program. NGAP was to be a more compact application of technologies developed for the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP), which was nixed as an option for the F-35 Lighting II a year ago,” Air and Space Forces reported…We should know more about the NGAD revision and the F/A-XX contract winner, in the next few months”. 

What You Need to Know: 

Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch , The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). 

 Image Credit: Creative Commons and/or Shutterstock.