Hypersonic flight favors unmanned aircraft: the G-loads and heat push past human limits, pointing to optionally manned—or fully autonomous—air-dominance and recon platforms. Thats what a 7th Generation fighter could be like.
-Lasers likely mature at sea first, while air combat shifts toward software, sensor fusion, and loyal-wingman teaming.
SR-72 Darkstar. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-Industry voices urge dropping “generation” labels as continuous upgrades blur lines; expect mixed fleets of 4th/5th/6th-gen jets guided by AI and mission data—the “golf bag” approach.
-BAE’s roadmap pegs a “third epoch” in the mid-2040s–2050s: full 6th-gen capability, autonomous combat adjuncts, and early 7th-gen efforts.
-Cutting-edge planes won’t fly alone—they’ll rely on today’s aircraft to deliver affordable mass.
7th Generation Fighter: Unmanned—and Hypersonic? An Over-the-Horizon Peek at the Future of Combat Aircraft
The United States and China are preparing to accept the next crop of combat aircraft into service, which raises the question of what the aircraft that succeed them will look like—and perhaps more importantly, what their capabilities will be?
Flight at hypersonic speeds, exceeding Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, is a pursuit being undertaken by multiple countries, primarily the United States and China, in their quest for next-generation air-to-air and air-to-ground weaponry.
Those efforts are ongoing and have experienced varying levels of success.
But propelling a human pilot to hypersonic speeds — reports of unknown provenance about Lockheed Martin’s supposed SR-72 or other projects aside—would be significantly more challenging to achieve, particularly if the aircraft in question were to be highly maneuverable as well.
G-forces in such an aircraft would be beyond any human’s ability to cope with and would necessarily represent a capability only an unmanned aircraft could be expected to achieve, barring any heretofore unknown technologies.
SR-72 Darkstar Plane. Image Credit: Lockheed Martin Handout.
Given the risks inherent to manned flight, compounded by combat scenarios against concerted adversary air defenses, it would not be unreasonable to expect that future air fleets would be at most optionally manned, if not entirely unmanned, at least in high-risk scenarios like air superiority missions.
Unmanned flight could also be a boon for expanding the flight envelope of future aircraft. Today’s rigid distinction between high-altitude flight and spaceflight could see its boundaries blurred—and is potentially an area ripe for exploration.
Following the retirement of the SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3+ reconnaissance aircraft, the United States lost a rapidly deployable spy asset. It relied instead on the relatively rigid orbits of space-based spy satellites.
Returning a horse into the Air Force stable capable of hypersonic flight anywhere on the globe would be a significant boon to American interests.
SR-71 Blackbird National Security Journal Photo Collection.
Laser weapons, that perennial, just-over-horizon Wunderwaffe, are still in development. However, their future appears more secure on the deck of a warship than on a combat aircraft, for now at least.
While laser weapons do offer virtually infinite magazines, their effectiveness is dependent on the amount of power that can be generated for each shot. And given the vastly greater quantities of energy ships can generate—American aircraft carriers are, by way of example, nuclear powered—the technology may hold more promise at sea than in the air.
Intriguing though these speculative capacities may be, the exact capabilities of future aircraft remain, by definition, extremely speculative in nature. Predictions about the impact or utility of new technology rarely age well. That said, several industry insiders shared their takes on the future of combat aviation.
Their conversation, as reported by Breaking Defense, is replete with industry insider insights.
Flying into the Future with 7th Generation Fighters
Although the specific details of what a 7th generation fighter aircraft would entail remain far from settled, BAE Systems’ Combat Air Strategy Director Mike Baulkwill offered some broad insights into the aircraft that will emerge after the current crop of sixth-generation combat aircraft currently in development.
During a media roundtable held in the United Kingdom, Baulkwill admitted that he “didn’t know where 7G aircraft development is heading,” but pushed back against today’s aircraft division into generations.
“We need to lose the generational name because aircraft are going to be evolving all the time,” Baulkwill said. But, he added, “there will be a baseline architecture which could be developed quickly and in an agile manner.”
However, ongoing software and hardware updates will be “forever changing” aircraft internally and externally, erasing in part today’s aircraft segregation by generation.
Instead, the future may echo the past. Instead of flying fleets of just a single generation, in the near future, countries will likely operate mixed fleets of fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation aircraft, akin to how today’s U.S. Air Force still operates updated Cold War-era fourth-generation fighters, several kinds of fifth-generation stealth fighters, and a bomber, and is preparing to accept the sixth-generation B-21 Raider bomber into service. Dubbing this the “golf bag approach,” Mr. Baulkwill emphasized that a diverse range of aircraft may be more capable of responding to a diverse set of threat scenarios.
B-21 Raider. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
During the roundtable, Jonny Moreton, Partnership Director and Military Advisor for the Future Combat Air System, a tripartite sixth-generation initiative aimed at developing a fighter for the French, Spanish, and German air forces, echoed Baulkwill’s sentiment. “Aircraft will be reliant on software and mission data to respond to emerging threats,” seemingly pointing to continuous upgrades and tweaks to aircraft.
Citing the BAE company presentation, the “third epoch” in combat aviation is expected to occur sometime between the mid-2040s and mid-2050s.
During that time, air forces in the United States and within the NATO alliance will operate “full 6G capabilities, augmented by autonomous combat aircraft taking diverse roles [and] potentially 7G fighter aircraft programs being developed [with] potential for wider collaboration and consolidation,” Breaking Defense reported.
What Will the Future Bring in Fighter Jets?
Achieving combat mass with air fleets composed exclusively of cutting-edge aircraft would be neither practical nor economical, regardless of the exact qualities of future platforms. It would be reasonable to assume that the next generation of aircraft still on the drawing board will offer a significant capability boost, particularly in range and weaponry.
But it would be foolish to assume those aircraft would fly on their own, unsupported by today’s crop of manned and unmanned aircraft. The aircraft of the future, it seems, will still depend in part on the aircraft of today to achieve dominance of the air.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
More Military
The ‘Super’ B-52H Stratofortress Bomber Is Already Flying
‘Go Home’: Stealth F-22 Raptor Flew Right Under Iranian F-4 Phantom Undetected
Russia’s ‘New’ PAK DA Stealth Bomber Has a Message for Every Military On Earth
China’s New H-20 Stealth Bomber Has a Message for Any Military on Earth
Mach 2 F-4 Phantom II Fighter Has a Message for Every Air Force on Earth
