https://www.defensenews.com/newsletters ... air-force/
Esto es mío: viendo también las flotas futuras de la USNavy, de Rusia y de China, está claro que la 4ª gen. seguirá siendo relevante hasta 2040. En la USAF esperan que sus F-16C y F-15C modernizados lleguen hasta la década 2040, así que muy probablemente su sustituto sea la 6ª gen., la cual empezaría a trabajar junto a los 5ª gen. que a su vez aún llegarían hasta la década 2070. (Recordemos que del Raptor hablan de modernizarlo hasta 2060 y del F-35 han dicho que hasta los 2070 al menos. Todos más que calvos.)
Lo que ha dicho la USAF:
If the money is there, new and improved F-15s could be coming soon to the Air Force
...
Goldfein said the new aircraft won’t be taking money from the F-35. “I’m not backing an inch off of the F-35” Goldfein said. “The F-35 buy that we’re on continues to remain on track. And I’m not interested in taking a nickel out of it when it comes to buying anything else in the fighter portfolio.”
...
As recently as September 2018... said that the Air Force needed to prioritize buying fifth-generation aircraft. "We are currently 80 percent fourth-gen aircraft and 20 percent fifth-generation aircraft,” she said at the time. "In any of the fights that we have been asked to plan for, more fifth-gen aircraft make a huge difference, and we think that getting to 50-50 means not buying new fourth-gen aircraft, it means continuing to increase the fifth generation.”
...
“They complement each other,” he said. “They each make each other better.” When asked if that meant compromising for quantity over quality, he said that would not be the case. “We’ve got to refresh the F-15C fleet because I can’t afford to not have that capacity to do the job and the missions.” Goldfein explained. “That’s what this is all about. If we’re refreshing the F-15C fleet, as we’re building up the F-35 fleet, this is not about any kind of a trade.”
He added that US Air Force needs to buy 72 fighters a year to get to the amount they need in the future — and to drive average aircraft age down from 28 years to 15 years. And while Goldfein might want all 72 to be fifth generation F-35s, budgetary concerns likely won’t let that happen. “If we had the money, those would be 72 F-35s. But we’ve gotta look at this from a cost/business case.” he explained. “An F-15 will never be an F-35. Never. But I need capacity.”
https://www.defensenews.com/newsletters ... air-force/
Saludos