"America’s New 6th Generation Stealth Fighter: ..." Topic

…Self-Regenerating?

"Astealthy, supersonic, semi-autonomous sixth-generation fighter maneuvers undetected through heavily armed enemy air space, evades radar detection to jam the adversaries command and control systems with EW weapons, gather, analyze and transmit targeting data across huge areas of terrain in milliseconds using AI-empowered computing, launch and operate groups of nearby mini-drones, fire air-launched hypersonic missiles and then incinerate enemy aircraft with fighter-jet fired precision laser weapons all while flying too quickly and stealthily to be targeted.

Taking this hypothetical mission yet another step farther, what if the sixth-generation fighter not only performed many of its missions with complete autonomy but also operated with a kind of self-regenerating coating or even composite armor which used synthetic biology to essentially regenerate and restore external structures lost or damaged by enemy fire?…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Self-regenerating or self-healing? Yes, that is correct.

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Um call me a skeptic, but……….

Add that, on top of very complex 6th Gen. requirements and designs, and I suspect it may never get built, OR if it does, it may never work as designed, kind of like the slow-moving development of the F-35.

It'd be great if they can make it, but I'll be a doubter until then.

Of course, link this with AI, and other things, and we could be making the Cylons real as well, which from what I've seen in TWO different series shows, is NOT a good thing.

I wonder what the cost per unit will be?
I think I remember reading somewhere that a WWII P-51 cost in the neighborhood of $100,000 USD to make.
Of course that was back when a dollar was real money. Maybe that will buy the front tire these days.

Self-regenerating systems are not as farfetched as one might think. It's the next evolution from self-sealing fuel tanks.

WWII P-51 cost in the neighborhood of $100,000 USD USD to make.

That's cheap even when adjusted for inflation today. Though back then companies are not as concerned with padding their profit margins.

I remember thinking how expensive an F-14 Tomcat was when I watched 'Top Gun' with that scene about gambling with a $30 USD million airplane (in 1986 dollars), but that's peanuts compared to the cost of an F-35 today. And people wonder why air forces are getting smaller.

Yea, regenerating aircraft are going to cut into spare parts sales and having to replace existing ones like in the old days, so they'll probably want $1 USD BILLION per copy for tech like that.