Next Generation Fighters and Collaborative RPAs in IADS: The Game 🎲

Happened to catch this video from the South China Morning Post: How China plans to lead the fighter jet race.

Of note for readers less familiar with SCMP -- though the paper is Hong Kong–based, critics (including The New York Times, Der Spiegel, and The Atlantic) have raised concerns about its editorial independence since its 2016 ownership change, alleging it promotes China’s soft power abroad. See more on Wikipedia.

Airpower and Sixth Generation Fighters

The video sets the scene by emphasizing how crucial air superiority is in modern conflict. And it is! From the South China Sea to Ukraine, control of the skies means superior logistics, fires, and intelligence. The video deep dive then pivots into stealth and hones in on Sixth Generation Fighters in development across China, Europe, and the US.

It's from the public data and speculation that I drew inspiration for the Next Generation Fighter and Next Generation Bomber unit cards in IADS: The Game. Beyond their Low Observable capability, these unit cards have affordability, lethality, survivability, and Tactical C2 of Collaborative RPAs. To make them even more un-balanced, definitely check out the house rules in Annex A -- bringing in Low-Probability of Intercept RADAR house rule for these aircraft... Jeez.

I made the card art before the F-47 announcement. Chose the wrong silhouette!! 😭

The Next Generation Fighter

An astonishing Attrition Point 2 unit card, the Next Generation Fighter comes in with Defense: 9 and rolls for three missile tokens: two air-to-air and one air-to-surface. In addition to the Low Observable special capability (which allows the fighter to reveal only on the third Detect attempt and to become undetected again after four actions), the card also includes a Collaborative RPA. Once drafted, the Next Generation Fighter lets the player search the undealt deck for an additional unit card, drawing the first Collaborative RPA found.

Collaborative RPAs

The Collaborative RPA is an excellent support aircraft. Also Low Observable, it comes in both air-to-air and air-to-surface variants, each equipped with a single missile token. Both variants can detect Air and Surface units. As a defensive capability, the Collaborative RPA has Jammer, allowing it to subtract 1d6 from any attack roll against friendly aircraft within its range.

Best of all, Collaborative RPAs don’t count toward the 2x Aircraft maximum formation size. In the SCMP video, they show a Sixth Gen Fighter surrounded by four drones -- exactly the nightmare you can replicate in IADS.

On top of that, RPAs are permanently in formation with the aircraft they deploy with. Even if they separate physically, they’re still considered in formation. That means your fighter can loiter safely while the RPA darts ahead to Detect targets or baits the enemy into revealing units with failed detection rolls.

Just beautiful.

Final Thought

Well! Hopefully deterrence holds and China doesn’t use the skies over Taiwan as a “proving ground” for Sixth Gen fighters like the video suggests they might, lol. C’mon, guys -- let’s keep it peaceful and just roll dice with friends! Issue Orders...? You know...? Like in the game...? And not real ones...?

-- Ric

The views and capabilities expressed in this board game are those of the author and do not reflect any real world capabilities, nor the official policy or positions of the United States Air Force, the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.