The Engine Crisis Killing Modern Fighter Programs

Описание: In July 2024, the United States Air Force did something unthinkable. They put the brakes on their sixth-generation fighter—the Next Generation Air Dominance program—despite nearly twenty billion dollars in planned spending. One of the main culprits? Engine development alone became a roughly seven billion dollar line item. Just for the engines.
But here's what's really shocking: In 2024, every single F-35 engine Pratt & Whitney delivered was late – all 123 of them. And the jets themselves? Lockheed delivered 110 F-35s that year, all behind schedule, with average delays of about 238 days. Russia's Su-57 has been flying with inferior interim engines for eight years. China spent three decades developing the WS-15 engine. Europe openly admits they're forty years behind in fundamental research.
This isn't a coincidence. From Washington to Beijing, Paris to Moscow, engine development has become the invisible bottleneck strangling every modern fighter program. And the problem is getting worse.
Here's what most people don't understand about fighter aircraft development. Everyone focuses on the airframe—the sleek stealth design, the advanced sensors, the pilot helmets that cost four hundred thousand dollars each. But behind every capability claim stands the same critical component: an engine that must perform what seems physically impossible.


Join this channel to get access to perks:
   / @aircraft_101