The United States' sixth-generation fighter (NGAD) has officially begun to be developed, and it can be seen from last year's official announcement that one of the main indicators of the sixth-generation fighter of the United States is to command unmanned loyal wingmen to fight. In the past, it was thought that this drone might be the American XQ-58A "Valkyrie", but it was recently learned that it was not the loyal wingman of the American sixth-generation fighter (NGAD).
On February 28, local time, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Agency made its first flight of the "XQ-67A UAV" at General Atomics' Grebit Flight Center near Palmdale, California. The drone, known as the "off-board sensing station", is another new drone for the U.S. military since the XQ-58A Valkyrie, and the first aircraft in its second-generation autonomous cooperative platform (ACP) program.
The aircraft has the best shape, using the same back air intake as the XQ-58A, has landing gear and adopts a front three-point layout, a small sweep angle main wing and a V-tail combination of aerodynamic layout, in appearance and XQ-58A "Valkyrie" somewhat similar, the aircraft focuses on air-to-air combat and infrared reconnaissance and tracking (IRST) missions to achieve manned aircraft and UAV with air supremacy (so-called unmanned loyal wingman).
The fighter may perform air supremacy missions with the U.S. Sixth Generation Fighter (NGAD) or provide escort missions for the B-21 stealth fighter, which is more likely due to the range. China's Feihong-97A UAV and J-20S combat are the same project, and they all use manned aircraft platforms to command UAV operations.
The XQ-67A UAV and China's Feihong-97A UAV both belong to the anti-air combat UAV series, and both have their own advantages and disadvantages. The XQ-67A's dorsal air intake makes it very stealthy, and it will not expose the target of the stealth manned fighter because of this ability. The Feihong-97A uses the same belly mussel-type air intake as the J-20, which has better air combat maneuverability, but the stealth performance is not destined to be better than the former.
At present, only China and the United States in the world have started practical research and development work in this field, and the projects proposed by other countries are still on paper, and the wait-and-see attitude is stronger.
It is still unknown who will be stronger in the field of manned aircraft and UAV cooperative operations between China and the United States in the future, but it is certain that China's J-20S fighter has the ability to command UAV loyal wingmen to fight, while the United States' sixth-generation fighter (NGAD) has not yet appeared as a prototype.