Student Research Symposium Program Portal: Submission #196

Abstract The U.S. Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program aspires to develop a sixth-generation aircraft capable of significantly outperforming the F-22, marking the first American initiative in this category. In conjunction with this endeavor, a separate aircraft is also being researched and developed for naval applications. This study addresses critical challenges and inquiries surrounding the program, particularly focusing on potential barriers such as funding constraints, public support, and political endorsement, and how these factors might influence the research and development of next-generation aircraft. A succinct overview of NGAD reveals its fundamental purpose within the U.S. Air Force: to preserve air superiority against adversarial nations like Russia and China, ensuring dominance in contested airspaces for prompt and effective victories. The primary objective of my research is to ascertain how specific impediments might delay or even jeopardize the progress of these advanced aircraft programs. I plan to gather data from various online resources, including governmental websites that discuss the NGAD initiatives, along with relevant scholarly articles and research papers. The importance of this research lies in its potential to highlight obstacles that could hinder or terminate the advancement of the NGAD program, thereby informing strategies to mitigate these challenges and ensure the program's success.