With \u2018sixth-generation\u2019 fighter programmes advancing amid a drastically changed combat environment, old assumptions are being challenged, meaning NATO nations in Europe must move fast \u2013 and spend a lot more money.<\/p>\n
Two European programmes \u2013 \u00adbetween France, Germany and Spain; and Italy and the UK, plus Japan \u2013 are gaining momentum, while the US Air Force (USAF) has picked\u00a0Boeing\u2019s F-47<\/strong>\u00a0to deliver its secretive Next Generation Air Dominance capability.<\/p>\n Beijing, meanwhile, surprised everyone when it made simultaneous flights with two advanced fighter concepts last December, \u00adincluding of a striking, three-engined Shenyang design widely \u00adreferred to as the J-36.<\/p>\n But as Ukraine\u2019s audaciously-mounted recent\u00a0mass drone strike<\/strong>\u00a0against multiple air bases throughout Russia illustrated, the face of warfare has forever changed, and once-feared strategic assets such as long-range bombers can be effectively neutralised by low-cost means which are increasingly difficult to counter at scale.<\/p>\n Fighter cultures clashed during another recent flashpoint, between neighbours India and Pakistan. Much uncertainty surrounds the events of aerial engagements which Islamabad claims resulted in its air force downing multiple Indian jets, including \u2013 if true \u2013 the first combat loss of a Dassault Aviation Rafale.<\/p>\n Chinese-built fighters and long-range air-to-air missiles are claimed to have played a key role, within a networked \u201ckill web\u201d, also involving the use of airborne early warning assets.<\/p>\n Propaganda is also alive and well in the next-generation world of air combat. Take as an example US President Donald Trump\u2019s seemingly unscripted references to Washington pursuing a twin-engined \u00addevelopment of the Lockheed Martin F-35, which he dubbed the \u2018F-55\u2019, and an enhanced \u2018F-22 Super\u2019 version of the USAF\u2019s formidable, but numerically limited Raptor.<\/p>\n While such dubious and \u00adpotentially murky claims may be intended to sow confusion and uncertainty, there is no doubt that all nations involved in such developments are placing great stock in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a means of gaining, and maintaining, a competitive edge during future conflict.<\/p>\n AI holds the promise of reducing pilot workload by finding key information from within a mass of generated data, but western officials already caution that some players \u2013 and specifically Russia, China, Iran and North Korea \u2013 will employ such technology with little regard for ethical considerations.<\/p>\n Against that backdrop, NATO\u2019s 32 member nations have backed a proposal that would see their annual spending on defence climb from a current target of 2% of gross \u00addomestic product to 3.5%,\u00a0topped up to 5%<\/strong>\u00a0by further investment in the defence and security sector, such as on infrastructure, resilience and support for industry.<\/p>\n Only two NATO nations already met the 2% spending benchmark when it was set in 2014, with this rising to 22 last year. It remains to be seen if the broader 5% goal \u2013 which is due to be signed off during the alliance\u2019s annual summit in The Hague in late June \u2013 will be achievable for a significant number of its members, and in a relevant timeframe.<\/p>\n The UK, for example, had recently set out an aspiration to hit the 3% mark by only the mid-2030s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With \u2018sixth-generation\u2019 fighter programmes advancing amid a drastically changed combat environment, old assumptions are being challenged, meaning NATO nations in Europe must move fast \u2013 and spend a lot more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[468,35],"class_list":["post-2243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-opinions","tag-defdense","tag-europe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EUROPEAN-DEFENSE.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2243"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2817,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243\/revisions\/2817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}