Air Force: Stealth 'incredibly important' for future aircraft: As the Defense Department seeks funding to develop a sixth-generation fighter, the Air Force and Navy appear to have differing opinions on the importance of stealth, while a top contractor on Wednesday called low observability for the future fighter "foundational."
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert told a Washington audience Feb. 4 that stealth might be "overrated" for future fighters.
"What does that next strike fighter look like?" Greenert asked. "I'm not sure if it's manned, don't know that it is. You can only go so fast, and you know that stealth may be overrated. … Let's face it, if something moves fast through the air, disrupts molecules and puts out heat – I don't care how cool the engine can be, it's going to be detectable."
The Defense Department's fiscal 2016 budget request includes money for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to "develop prototypes for the next generation of air dominance platforms," Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall told a Senate panel in late January.
Air Force Gen. Hawk Carlisle, the head of Air Combat Command, told reporters Feb. 12 that stealth will be "hugely important" for the next-generation Air Force fighter, but it will also important will be how the next aircraft integrates its sensors, and its command and control capabilities.
"Stealth is wonderful, but you have to have more than stealth," Carlisle said at the Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida. "You have to have fusion, you have to have different capabilities across the spectrum.
"It will be incredibly important. It won't be the only key attribute, and it isn't today."
