‍‍The Trump administration has abused tariffs, and China has resolutely countered and stayed with it to the end. US media have begun to worry that China's countermeasures may cause the US "sixth generation aircraft" project to be set.

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China strengthens control over rare earth exports

US F-47 fighter jets are full of variables

According to the US Newsweek website on April 7, China has taken a number of measures to fight back against US tariff bullying and imposed export controls on a variety of rare earth-related items, covering resources that are crucial to avionics, which may frustrate the United States' sixth-generation fighter project. Because these materials are essential for high-performance fighters, and the United States cannot produce them on its own .

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On March 21 local time, US President Trump announced the award of Boeing to produce the US Air Force's "Next Generation Air Advantage" fighter jets, which is the contract for the sixth-generation fighter jet project, and named the fighter jet F-47.

According to Oxford Consulting, stealth aircraft like the F-47 need to rely on rare earth elements such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium to make high-performance magnets and radar systems, and metals such as titanium, tungsten and niobium to enhance structural strength, heat resistance and stealth coatings.

Military commentator Wei Dongxu said that Trump's launch of a tariff war has also injured American arms dealers . American arms dealers develop advanced weapons and equipment, especially stealth fighters. Many parts and raw materials need to be purchased from other countries, which not only involves China, but also many other countries.

The future of the US Air Force's "sixth generation aircraft" is uncertain

The Navy's "sixth generation aircraft" is not optimistic either

According to the US "War Theater" website, Rear Admiral Michael Donnelly, head of the air combat department of the Office of the Secretary of Navy's Office, said that the range of the US Navy's "sixth generation aircraft" F/A-XX will increase by 25% compared to the existing aircraft .

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US media analyzed that the F-35C has the largest combat radius among the US Navy's tactical fighter jets, with a combat radius of 1,241 kilometers. Based on this calculation, the expected maximum combat radius of the US Navy's "sixth generation aircraft" is 1,551 kilometers. The American media is very disappointed with this data.

Military expert Du Wenlong said that if the "sixth generation aircraft" that spent so much money to create, its combat radius will only increase by 300 kilometers compared with the F-35C, which is indeed no qualitative breakthrough .

The U.S. Navy's New Carrier-Board Aircraft

A dilemma between cost and performance

For carrier-based aircraft, the choice between performance, size and cost has always been controversial. Due to limited space in the deck and hangar of the aircraft carrier, there is a view that it is sometimes worth sacrificing single-air performance in exchange for the aircraft carrier to carry more fighters.

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Military commentator Wei Dongxu analyzed that the first thing the US aircraft carrier strike group thinks is not to defeat the opponent, but to save lives and escape. There is a contradiction at the design level: stealthy carrier-based aircraft must have a flat shape, the wingspan will be large, and the size of the aircraft cannot be very small. The US Navy is very conflicted and is still in a state of swaying the size, core data and indicators of the new generation of stealth carrier-based aircraft .

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Overall, the "sixth generation aircraft" of the US Air Force and Navy are now just a stage of talk on paper. No matter how magical the publicity is, it ultimately depends on the strength of the finished product.