GCAP, informally known as Tempest, is the UK-Italian-Japanese program developing a sixth-generation stealth fighter to replace the Typhoon and Mitsubishi F-2 from 2035.
FCAS / SCAF was the Franco-German-Spanish sixth-generation air-combat project built around a crewed fighter, remote carriers and a combat cloud; its joint fighter collapsed in 2026, while parts of the wider system continue.
The Shenyang J-50 (J-XDS) is China's second sixth-generation fighter prototype — a tailless, twin-engine lambda-wing jet with swiveling wingtips, first observed 26 December 2024, the same day as the Chengdu J-36. Beijing has never acknowledged it; everything known is OSINT.
The Boeing F-47 is the US Air Force's sixth-generation NGAD fighter — the planned F-22 successor, awarded March 2025, with a claimed 1,000+ nautical mile combat radius and Mach 2+ speed. The first airframe is in build in St. Louis; first flight is targeted for 2028.
China's tailless, trijet sixth-generation heavy stealth fighter prototype — a program accelerating faster than expected, challenging US NGAD timelines and upending assumptions about the future of air combat.