After Sweden announced that it would develop its own next-generation fighter jet, another major European power is also preparing to exert its efforts in this field, and a model of a new fighter has been released! However, it is worth noting that this country has almost never developed a fighter jet of its own in the past 80 years or so.
That country is Germany!
According to Noticias de Israel, the German DLR Aerospace Center recently showed a model of a fighter jet, which they named DLR-FED "Devil";
The data given by the DLR when introducing its performance are quite interesting, such as the estimated range of the aircraft can reach about 2000 kilometers, the combat radius is about 1000 to 1300 kilometers, the maximum take-off weight is close to 36 tons, the payload is more than 8 tons, of which the capacity of the internal magazine is 1.8 tons, and it also has stealth capabilities comparable to any active fighter now.
In terms of power, DLR-FED will use two high-thrust engines of unknown models, with an estimated thrust of between 145 kN and 227 kN, and the thrust-to-weight ratio is quite explosive, which can reach about 1.32, you must know that the thrust-to-weight ratio of the American F-22 is now only 1.08, and its maximum flight speed can at least exceed Mach 2, and the maximum ceiling is about 15,000 meters!
This is the fighter that Germany is working on, although the report does not clearly indicate the "generation" of the aircraft, but according to the relevant data and the current situation of the Luftwaffe, it should belong to the sixth generation fighter.
It is also uncertain that Germany is now actively involved in the FCAS/SKAF fighter jet program, which is also a sixth-generation aircraft, jointly developed with France and Spain, and whether the German DLR-FED is part of the FCAS/SKAF research category DLR has not been answered.
However, my personal analysis, this DLR-FED is most likely an advanced fighter led by Germany itself, after all, the price of purchasing fighters from foreign countries is too high, after Germany ordered 35 F-35 from the Americans at a price of 8.83 billion US dollars, this price is not cheap!
If you count Germany's sixth-generation fighter, then there are at least four sixth-generation aircraft under development on European soil, such as GCAP jointly developed by Britain, Japan and Italy, FCAS from Germany, France and Spain, and Swedish Saab's next-generation fighter.
It seems that everyone in the field of sixth-generation aircraft wants to get a piece of the pie! It is no wonder that even countries such as Turkey and South Korea are exerting their efforts in fifth-generation aircraft, and it is reasonable for these old industrial powers in the past to want to enter the field of next-generation fighters.
However, the sudden appearance of the Germans at this time is quite surprising, because before that, this country was at most jointly developed with other countries in the field of fighter aircraft, such as the famous "Typhoon", "Tornado" and other models, this time "alone" has never been done in the past nearly 80 years.
We all know that German fighters were quite powerful during World War II, and there were many world-famous models, such as Messerschmidt's Bf 109 fighter, Focke-Wolff's Fw 190 fighter, Junkers' Ju87 "Stuka" dive bomber, etc., and the world's first jet fighter was also first launched by this country.
Even after the war, Germany's design concept in the field of fighter jets also directly affected the United States and the Soviet Union for many years, and many fighter jets launched by these two countries after the end of the war were derived from the design drawings left by the Germans.
However, with the defeat of Germany, its military aviation industry was completely dismantled, and its talents and technology were divided up by the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and other countries, and even the production equipment was packaged and transported away; in addition, the Luftwaffe was also disbanded, so this country basically gave up the development of military aircraft after the war, and instead emerged in the field of civil aviation.
Until the 60s, West Germany saw that other countries were developing rapidly in vertical take-off and landing fighters, so they couldn't help but make one, its name is EWR VJ 101, which is a "weird guy" with six engines and can achieve a flight speed of Mach 2; it is a pity that after nearly five years of development, due to the high risk, the key technology can not break through and was dismounted, and later in the 70s, there was also a VAK 191 vertical take-off and landing fighter appeared, but it finally failed to enter active service.
These are the two fighters that Germany has developed since World War II, although the concept and design are good, but neither of them has entered the army;
After these two strikes, Germany never developed its own fighter again, but began to seek international cooperation, and then there were "Tornado" fighters and "Typhoon" fighters.
Although Germany does not independently develop fighter jets, it has many joint development experiences, and it is already a powerful industrialized country, so its military industrial enterprises have already accumulated enough experience, such as Messerschmidt, Panavian Aircraft Company, MTU Aircraft Engines, Rheinmetall, Eurofighter Corporation, etc.
The DLR Aerospace Center, which is responsible for the development of this fighter, is quite famous, which is a professional research and development institution that gathers the top aviation talents in Germany, with an annual budget of more than 1 billion euros, and nearly 20 famous German universities are its partners, and its research fields cover most of the fields of aerospace and aviation, so it wants to develop a fighter jet basically without any pressure.
Compared to its current achievements, the predecessor of this institution is even more remarkable;
Its predecessor was the "Airship Aerodynamic Test Institute", founded by Rudwig Plante in 1907, and later became the aerodynamic test station in Germany.
In the 20s, the station was renamed the "Space Flight Association" and was led by three students of the famous German aerospace physicist Hermann Aubert (they were Max Wallier, Johannes Winkler, and Willy Ley);
During World War II, members of this private association were involved in the design of many famous German aircraft, such as the V-2 missile and the Me163 fighter.
Next, we have to pay close attention to this self-developed fighter in Germany and see what its real machine looks like!