Aircraft Generations for Dummies: What's next?

Everyone is racing to add the next 0.1 to the generation. Nobody wants to talk about the one part of the jet that hasn't been upgraded since 1950. Ever since the Air domain has been used as an arena of warfare, fighter aircraft have evolved with the evolution of technology. These fighter aircraft have been categorized into different generations. The generations are numbers from one to five and in the not so distant future a sixth is gonna appear. I will not bore you with the long and laborious details of how to distinguish one generation's fighter from the next, mostly because I can't tell one from the other myself and just like there are an infinite number of numbers between 0 and 1,2 and 3, 4 and 5, similarly there are an infinite number of generations between 4 and 5, there is 4.5 and 4.65 and 4.75……. AND 5. Every new piece of fancy avionics, every new layer of data fusion, every new display adds 0.1 to the generation and defence companies are rushing to push more of these into these fighter jets and and air forces the world over are queuing up for the newest, latest, freshly-patched version without realizing the limiting factor. We'll get to the limiting factor. Stay with me

First thing to understand is the generations. There are essentially three generations of fighters and we have a fourth currently under testing and development:

1. The boomers

2. The Millenials

3. Gen Z and…

4. GEN Alpha (coming soon)

And before you ask, let me answer it myself. NO, I have not made these generations up, THEY ARE VERY WELL DOCUMENTED, ASK ANYONE.

THE BOOMERS :

This generation of fighter jets includes everything that pre-dates the 90s. One didnt have to hide behind fancy avionics and addictive screens. The cockpits were rough, rugged and honestly manly looking, you could touch buttons and toggle them, even large levers and dials much like the rotary phones of the time. The pilots looked around, enjoyed nature and the view, saw an adversary, cursed in their native languages, turned behind the adversary and shot. Some of them had Radars but you couldn't really call them Airborne interceptors yet, the missiles used were very short range, you mostly only shot what you saw and guns were still relevant Plain and simple just like life was back then. Just like it was for the actual boomers.

THE MILLENIALS :

Oh The Millennials! The post 90’s guys. Sorry, I mean the post 90 jets. Like the actual millennials, these were what I call the confused generation. They had AI’s and a new shiny missiles that could shoot Beyond Visual Range but they were still finding their feet, active homing and Data Links were still evolving and not everyone had these so they had to rely on their own sight and instincts in addition to the AI’s and BVRs. These new technologies not only changed CONOPS but also changed the way pilots trained. training got brutal, because now you had to master everything the boomers knew plus everything the boomers never dreamed of. Two full skill sets in one skull. Sound familiar?

GEN Z :

This is us, right now both in human and tech. I personally throw all the infinite generations between 4 and 5 into this bucket. Gen Z honestly has it tough. The boomer stick-and-rudder skills still haven't gone out of fashion. The millennial BVR game is still very much the game. And then, layered on top of all of it, comes the avalanche. The Iphone , the Ipad, the Playstations. Sorry, I meant the AESA Radars, The BVRAAMs, the Helmet mounted displays, the Multi Function displays and Gen Z literally is overwhelmed in the cockpit much like in life. It's not just the screens but also because of all the ways they can connect to each other like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, there is always another notification. Oh sorry again! I meant they connect through Datalinks, Satellites, UHF and VHF, AEWACs and Ground Radars, every node dying to pour its picture into your cockpit. It's like a social media company hungry to pour as much information into your head as possible, fighting for your attention and this brings us to the problem (thank you for staying with me). This is where most diagnosis of the problems err. The obvious problem is too much data for the mind to process. The pilot is drowning in information. But, its not, the entire multi billion dollar selling point of a modern jet is that it takes 10 weird pieces of information and fuses it into one clean picture and that is where the future lies. The 2 seconds to make a decision in active combat decades ago is still 2 seconds today. Except that the decision has a lot more variables to consider. Volume is a problem a machine solves very well. Think about your social media feed again, Gen Z’s problem isn't too many posts, it’s the speed with which it all moves, the amount of opinions being fed into their brains and that is where the human lacks and that is the big problem! Air combat is and has always been sprint of decision loops. See it, make sense of what you see, decide, act and do it faster than the other person does. The missiles gets faster, the datalink gets faster what lacks behind is the neuron. The pilot has become the slowest component of the cycle.

There is a name for that loop by the way, its called the OODA loop and there lies the irony, the man who invented the OODA loop was a fighter pilot himself by the name of John Boyd. The pilot invented the very thing that is now pushing him out. John Boyd was fighter pilot, in todays world we would call him a ‘sensor manager’ but even managing is a race against time and time, like always is winning as the training regimens keep getting longer. Time to proficiency keeps stretching. And still, everyone keeps adding the next 0.1 to their generation.

GEN A (coming soon):

So what's next? Everyone has a favourite. Some say AI, others argue for UAV’s. Its not my place to predict but we do need to look at where the next billions are being poured in. Into AI, UAVs and CCAs which means the whole argument is a distant prediction but a very close reality.

I say let the machine win the war of tempo because we cannot treat humans as a bottleneck to be discarded but to be elevated to a guardian, a supervisor. Let him make the decisions, let him think about the morals and ethics of the war and let the machine fight the war.

The boomer looked out of his canopy and swore at the enemy in his own language. The Gen Alpha "pilot" may watch the whole war resolve on a screen, from somewhere very safe, approving a call that was already made without him.

Good luck to the ones who will fly it.

(And no, Gen Alpha is not a made-up generation either.)