This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009)

Aircraft classified as fifth generation jet fighters are those in service approximately from 2005 onward, until the succeeding generation of fighters enter service. These aircraft combine high performance airframes, internally carried advanced air to air, and air to ground weapons, all aspect stealth, Low Probability of Intercept Radar, and networks for shared situation awareness. Their advanced highly integrated avionics systems, with on and off-board sensor fusion, free pilots to focus on the task, rather than the different systems that generate the information.^[1][2][3]

Previous generation stealth aircraft, such as the B-2 Spirit and F-117 Nighthawk, lacked LPI Active Electronically Scanned Array radars, and LPI radio networks, and so were limited to attacking ground targets, because engaging other aircraft would have revealed themselves.

Currently the only developed fifth generation jet fighters are the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II.^[4][5] US fighter manufacturer Lockheed Martin uses "fifth generation fighter" to describe these two airplanes, with the definition including "advanced stealth", "extreme performance", "information fusion" and "advanced sustainment".^[6] It does not include supercruise capability, which has typically been associated with the more advanced modern fighters. Lockheed Martin attempted to trademark the term "5th generation fighters" in association with jet aircraft and structural parts therefor ^[7], and has a trademark to a logo with the term ^[8].

This use of the term fifth generation has been criticized: "...it is misleading to portray the F-22 and F-35 as a linear evolution in fighter design. Rather, they are a closely related pair of outliers, relying on a higher level of stealth as a key element of survivability - as the Lockheed YF-12 and Mikoyan MIG-25, in the 1960s, relied on speed and altitude."^[9]

[edit] Examples

See: List of fifth generation jet fighters

[edit] See also

• Fourth-generation jet fighter
• Stealth aircraft

[edit] References

1. ^ 5TH Generation Fighters
2. ^ Russia trails U.S. in pursuit of a fifth-generation jet
3. ^ A 21st-century Concept of Air and Military Operations by Robbin F. Laird
4. ^ Yoon, Joe. "Aerospaceweb.org | Ask Us - Fighter Generations". Aerospaceweb.org, 27 June 2004. Retrieved: 03 Jan. 2009.
5. ^ 5th Generation Fighters, Lockheed Martin. Retrieved 15 April 2009.
6. ^ 5TH Generation Fighters, Lockheed Martin, retrieved 15 April 2009.
7. ^ [1] United States Patent and Trademark Office, trademark serial number 78885922
8. ^ [2] United States Patent and Trademark Office, trademark serial number 78896843
9. ^ [3] Editorial Insight by Bill Sweetman, Defense Technology International, December 2009.

• Spick, Mike. Brassey's Modern Fighters: The Ultimate Guide to In-Flight Tactics, Technology, Weapons, and Equipment. Potomac Books Inc, 2002. ISBN 157488462X.