The previous month saw the U.S Air Force Chief admitting that the F-35 fighter aircraft failed to take F-16’s place as planned.
Now, following the chief’s statement, the U.S air force has announced developing a new multi-use fighter jet to replace its old F-16 fleet while also detailing that the new aircraft development program would be kept low-cost compared to the F-35 program.
The defense analysts were pretty shocked to hear the chief’s statement, as the F-35 was designed and developed with the core purpose of replacing the aging fleet of F-16. The F-35 was intended to increase the U.S air force by playing its role as modern fifth-generation fighter aircraft. In contrast, the chief’s recent statement says of developing a new fifth-generation-minus fighter aircraft.
As per the latest, experts have gathered together to build the new replacement for the glorious F-16, which already has made a long run now. The new answer is the F-36 Kingsnake lightweight fighter jet.
Hush-Kit huddled with the team behind Eurofighter and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Their ideas were then given to the illustrator Andy Godfrey to create the Kingsnake fighter aircraft concept.
Designing the concept of the F-36, Hush-Kit kept it in-line with the chief’s asked specs, “a lightweight, less-costly fighter jet that doesn’t focus on stealth”, which makes the F-36 a fifth-gen-minus design.
The experts have announced that the new aircraft will equip the modern specs within one year span, as a 20-year development program is out of the question, given the time spent on the development of the F-35 aircraft and its failure has left with no other option. The fast development process will be completed using simple construction methods like the 3D printing tech to get the fighter aircraft off the production line as soon as possible.
As per the latest on this news, the Kingsnake F-36 would be equipped with AN/APG-83 advanced electronically scanned array radar, the one used in the most recent version of the F-16. It would also have an infrared sensor taken from the Legion electro-optical targeting pod.
A ‘Luddite Czar’ would keep the modern technologies away from creeping into the production of the new F-36. Resultingly, it would allow the developers to keep the production within the given time-frame.
The new fighter jet will fulfill the need for an aircraft capable of conducting air-to-air and air-to-ground combat missions. The Kingsnake would carry missiles and guided bombs in internal bays and would pack two on wing-mounted hardpoints. The guns mounted on the aircraft would allow to take on the enemies’ ground forces effectively.
The key guidance for developing the F-36 includes speedy development, low-cost production, and equipping the aircraft with modern tech sometime in the future. A statement from Hush-kits said that the ‘F-22 is a Bugatti Chiron, the F-35 is a Ferrari, but the air force needs a Nissan 300ZX in the shape of F-36 Kingsnake.
F-36 Sterik Stealth-Fighter jet concept is in its production phase. It’s just a fictional aircraft in a video of Raytheon based on Cyber Threats in Aviation. Below are some of the details on the concept aircraft.