The U.S. military test pilot analyzed China's sixth-generation aircraft on a large screen, and the w

Since the end of World War II in 1945, the United States has been "far ahead" in the development of fighter jets around the world with its strong aviation technology advantages. However, the Americans' technological advantage was completely broken in the development of the sixth-generation fighter jets. For the first time since 1945, Americans found that they were lagging behind in the field of fighter jet research and development technology!

(Brigadier General Doug Wickett, commander of the 412th Test Wing of the U.S. Army)

On December 26, 2024, China's Shenyang Aircraft Corporation and Chengdu Aircraft Corporation respectively unveiled a new fighter jet that had never been made public before. The outside world has always believed that these two aircraft are China's sixth-generation fighter jets, and the impact of the appearance of these two aircraft on the United States can be said to be unimaginable. According to the American "Aviationist" website, on the first working day after the Christmas-New Year's Day holiday, Brigadier General Doug Wickett, commander of the 412th Test Wing of the US Air Force, personally explained the two Chinese sixth-generation aircraft at an internal meeting. During the explanation, Brigadier General Wickett only summed up China's sixth-generation fighter jets in eight words: "Shock, serious sense of crisis."

(The 412th Test Wing is the elite of the US Air Force)

The 412th Test Wing of the U.S. Air Force is a special unit directly under the U.S. Air Force Test Center. It has 3 groups, 8 squadrons, 1 management department and 1 school, with a total of 19,500 people. It is stationed at Edwards Air Force Base in northwestern California. The 412th Test Wing has more than 90 aircraft of various types and performs more than 7,400 tasks of various types each year, of which more than 2,000 are test tasks. In a sense, this unit is not only the core unit of the U.S. Air Force, but also a window for the outside world to observe the changes in the equipment technology of the U.S. Air Force. It is not difficult to find that the commander of this unit personally explained China's sixth-generation aircraft, which fully demonstrated the importance the U.S. military attaches to China's sixth-generation fighter.

(Today, the United States no longer has any advantage in fourth-generation and fifth-generation aircraft technology)

In fact, even without mentioning the sixth-generation fighter jets, the US Air Force will not have any advantage in the current confrontation with the Chinese Air Force. According to Brigadier General Victor, by the end of 2024, the US Air Force will be equipped with a total of about 1,260 fighter jets of various types, while the Chinese Air Force will be equipped with about 1,339 fighter jets. The Chinese Air Force is also equipped with about 225 bombers of various types of H-6 series, which exceeds the US military in number. In addition, with the coordination of a considerable number of auxiliary aircraft such as early warning aircraft, electronic warfare aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft and long-range drones, the PLA Air Force has currently formed a strategic advantage over the US military around the Western Pacific. In this case, the US military cannot pose an effective threat to the PLA Air Force.

(American media compares Chengfei's J-36 and the US NGAD)

In fact, the concept of the "sixth-generation aircraft" was first proposed by the US military. The US military originally planned to develop a sixth-generation fighter to replace the F-22 fighter that has been in service for more than 20 years and is close to retirement. This is the US "Next Generation Advanced Fighter Program", abbreviated as "NGAD" in English. The program was officially launched in 2023. In 2023 and 2024, the US Air Force applied for a considerable amount of research and development funds for it. However, at the end of 2024, US Air Force Chief of Operations Frank Kendall ordered the termination of the NGAD research and development plan.

(Such a public display of the sixth-generation fighter fully demonstrates China's technological confidence)

However, after the United States terminated the development of NGAD, China immediately unveiled its own sixth-generation fighter jets, and what shocked the Americans the most was that China showed two sixth-generation fighter jets at once, one each from Chengfei and Shenfei, which made the United States' termination of NGAD development a joke. In response, on December 27, 2024, the day after the first flight of China's two sixth-generation aircraft, the Pentagon and Congress immediately ended their Christmas vacation and returned to Washington to study countermeasures. In response, Andrew Hunter, the outgoing U.S. Air Force procurement director, believes that the United States will quickly resume the development of the NGAD project because China and the United States are "stuck in a competition for the next generation of air power." If the United States wants to win the competition, it must accelerate the development of its own sixth-generation aircraft.

(Frank Kendall was interviewed by the US media, photo source: CSIS)

Not only Hunter, but also Frank Kendall, the US Air Force Chief of Operations who personally terminated the NGAD project, believes that the NGAD manned fighter program that he suspended is likely to be resumed, but he also said that to resume the NGAD project, "we still need more than $20 billion for research and development." However, Kendall's statement is likely to be quite conservative, because the previous R&D cost of the F-22 fighter was as high as a staggering $70 billion, so the "$20 billion" here is obviously not intended to overly stimulate the US government and Congress.

(Faced with China's rapid unveiling of many advanced aircraft, Americans have no choice but to accept it)

It is not difficult to see that the sixth-generation fighter jets have an absolute advantage in "dimensionality reduction" over the current fifth-generation aircraft. At present, China's sixth-generation fighter jets have entered the test flight stage, while the United States is still drawing PPTs. Not to mention when the sixth-generation aircraft will be put into service, even when the NGAD plan will be restarted is still an unknown. No wonder the elite pilots of the United States have used "shocking" to describe their feelings. It is indeed quite shocking. Moreover, with the continuous growth of the strength of the Chinese Air Force, the United States' air superiority has been rapidly disappearing. In this case, American pilots looking at the advanced equipment of the Chinese Air Force can only say "I can't help but accept it."