The US Air Force secretly built and flew a prototype of its mysterious next generation fight jet

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The US Air Force quietly built and flew a prototype of a fighter jet developed as part of the Next Generation Air Dominance programs.

Will Roper, the Air Force's top acquisition official said, Valerie Insinna Monday that the service has already built and flown a full-scale flight demonstrator in the real world and we broke records in doing it. We are ready to go and build the next generation aircraft in a way that has never happened before.

Roper declined to provide any specific details on the mysterious new aircraft, the contractors involved in its development or the first flights of the experimental fighter expected to one day deliver more advanced capabilities than fifth generation fighters like the F-22 and F-35. Roper more publicly acknowledged the existence and testing of the new jet Tuesday at the Air Force Association's Air Space Cyber virtual conference.

He said, NGAD right now is designing, assembling, testing in the digital world, exploring things that would have cost time and money to wait for physical world results. NGAD has come so far that the full scale flight demonstrator has already flown in the physical world. It's broken a lot of records in the doing.

According to Air Force budget documents the purpose of the Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance program is to develop an advanced fighter jet featuring enhancements in survivability, lethality, and persistence across a range of military operations that can deliver Air Superiority for the Joint Force in the most challenging of environments.