As the United States enters the era of next-generation aerial combat, a top US Air Force (USAF) official said at a symposium that China’s sixth-generation aircraft is likely intended as an air superiority aircraft. The participating officials also affirmed that the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program was irreplaceable.
The USAF officials were speaking at the Air and Space Forces Association (ASA) 2025 Warfare Symposium in Colorado. The discussions centred around air superiority, with several officials agreeing that it will remain crucial for winning future battles.
A senior USAF official, General Kenneth Wilsbach, head of Air Combat Command, which manages the USAF’s fighter, reconnaissance and electronic warfare fleets, said the Chinese sixth-generation fighter is designed for air superiority roles.
“Sixth-gen aircraft are for air superiority,” Wilsbach said, referring to the photos of the Chinese sixth-generation aircraft that surfaced in December 2024. “We know what that’s for. What are we going to do about it? I don’t believe nothing is an option.”
China flew two sixth-generation fighter jet prototypes on December 26, and photos of them were posted on social media. Of the two, the larger, tailless, supersonic stealth aircraft developed by Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) has been designated the Chengdu J-36, while the other aircraft, developed by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC), has been named the J-50 by military watchers and pundits.
China’s next-generation aircraft program remains shrouded in secrecy, much like its other sensitive military programs. However, the two sixth-gen fighter jet prototypes seemed to have low-observable/stealth characteristics including an internal weapons bay, blended-wing fuselage, and lack of vertical stabilisers.
Though General Wilsbach has presumed that the aircraft will primarily be used for air superiority, China has not revealed the exact role of the sixth-generation fighter jets, as it did with its fifth-generation J-20 Mighty Dragon.
In fact, responding to General Wilsbach’s remarks, a popular PLA analyst, Rick Joe said on social media site X: “It would be helpful if this assists in setting the mainstream opinion on the role of J-36 and the SAC jet in a faster way, than the slow painful process we had to endure for J-20.”
Since the two prototypes were spotted, some analysts have predicted that the next-generation Chinese fighter would either be a bomber or a fighter-bomber with a supplementary air-to-air role, whereas others have pitted it against the F-22 and the next-generation US NGAD, assuming it would be an air-superiority fighter jet.
In a previous article for The Diplomat, Rick Joe said that the Chinese language grapevine that foresaw this aircraft generally refers to it as the PLA’s next-generation air supremacy aircraft.
“Kinematic maneuvering is also expected, however, with less emphasis on within visual range domains and greater emphasis on higher speeds. The aircraft is primarily air-to-air oriented, though strike is a viable secondary role,” he noted.
While the role of the J-36 cannot be independently confirmed, controlling the air has, so far, been considered essential to conducting operations on land and at sea.
Moreover, experts and analysts have widely agreed that the Russia-Ukraine war has dragged on for more than three years because neither side was able to establish air superiority, which is often considered to be decisive in the battlefield. Without air superiority, the war enters a stalemate.
The USAF officials at the ASA 2025 War Symposium focused on the significance of air superiority, stating that America’s enemies were developing their means to achieve air superiority to deny that advantage to the US, an indirect reference to China.
The officials said, almost in unison, that the idea of air superiority is evolving to make greater use of space, autonomous aircraft, and non-kinetic capabilities, but air superiority is still necessary for operations if the US is to win any future war, no matter the cost.
Maj. Gen. Joseph D. Kunkel, the Air Force’s director of force design, integration and wargaming said, “We know what it takes to win. It takes air superiority, and if America wants to make those investments to win, then we’ll do so. If America doesn’t want to make those investments, then we’ll take more risk.”
That said, the discussions on air superiority also led to the discussion on the US next-generation aircraft program—the NGAD—whose future remains unknown amid fiscal uncertainties.
NGAD Is More Viable Option For The US
In light of the uncertain future of the Air Force’s sixth-generation fighter jet, service officials said that the Next Generation Air Dominance program is the best means of securing the air in upcoming battles.
“Many of you know, we put a pause on NGAD, and we put a pause on NGAD to reflect, and we did a study on it,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel said.
“With that study, we asked ourselves some hard questions,” he continued. “Is air superiority dead? What does air superiority look like in the future? Does the joint force need air superiority? And what we found is, not only in the past, not only the present, but in the future, air superiority matters.”
Kunkel further added, “We tried a whole bunch of different options, and there was no more vital option than NGAD to achieve air superiority in this highly contested environment.”
As previously explained by the EurAsian Times, the NGAD was initially intended to partially replace the F-22 Raptors in the USAF. However, it has been put on hold due to its high costs and the need to prioritize resources for other important programs.
One unit of NGAD would cost US$250 million to US$300 million—nearly three times more than the F-35. This is why the US halted the program in the summer of 2024, reviewed its requirements, and ultimately postponed a decision on its future until the incoming Trump administration.
Notably, though, the USAF Secretary Frank Kendall said in an interview in January 2025 that the current Air Force leadership’s decisions on the Next-Generation Air Dominance program and the service’s overall strategic outlook were unaffected by the appearance of new Chinese combat aircraft.
“I’ve been watching China modernize their military for quite a while,” Kendall said. “They’re working aggressively to build a military designed to keep the U.S. out of the Western Pacific, and I think, over time, they have more ambitions than even that.”
Kendall emphasized that the Air and Space Forces have “strategic priorities” that need to be considered and evaluated against different NGAD approaches. However, he added that price wasn’t the only issue, expressing worries that threats and changing technology also called for a review.
“My operators were not 100 percent sure they had the right airplane,” he said. “And I agree with that. I think it’s really worthwhile to think carefully about what is essentially an F-22 replacement. Is that really the right new design?”
However, as the Trump administration debates over the program, there appears to be an emerging consensus that the NGAD is the best platform to take on the “challenge” posed by the air superiority aircraft developed by its adversaries.
Kunkel admitted that budgetary constraints remain the greatest obstacle to the NGAD family of systems, which consists of a crewed fighter at its core and the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA).
Air Force leaders at the symposium emphasized the significance of NGAD. However, they also stated that they are still in the process of discussing how the military would attain air superiority and that they will continue to be “open-minded” about new ideas in addition to the NGAD. A host of other ideas, including non-kinetic means like electronic warfare and cyber techniques are also being studied.
There is still no final decision on what should be done about the NGAD combat fighter or how that aircraft will ultimately look, if at all. Nonetheless, it is now evident that the USAF has determined that purchasing a fleet of new crewed sixth-generation stealth combat fighters is the best course of action.
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