JetZero, an American aerospace engineering company, is cooperating with Northrop Grumman to show the US Air Force a new tanker design Z-5. Previously, long-range air-to-air missiles (such as PL- 15 long-range air-to-air missiles) and stealth fighters posed increasing threats to large rear support aircraft such as early warning aircraft and tankers in air combat.

The US Air Force put forward the concept of "Next Generation Aerial Refueling System" (NGAS), and plans to put a new stealth tanker into service around 2040, so as to ensure that while providing aerial refueling support for its fighters/bombers at the front line, it is more difficult to be discovered and shot down by the other side.

Compared with the traditional tubular wing fuselage, this flying wing-like fuselage design will greatly reduce the weight of the aircraft and the drag caused by flight, and at the same time greatly increase the lift, thus further improving the flight efficiency. At the same time, the hybrid wing fuselage design will save more internal space, making the Z-5 fuselage shorter, but the internal volume is larger.

Compared with KC-46A Pegasus modified by Boeing -767, Z-5 will be able to carry twice as much fuel as KC-46A, making the range reach 5000 nautical miles (9260 kilometers) and reducing combustion consumption by 50%.

In addition, by extending the nose landing gear during take-off, the angle of attack of the aircraft can reach 6, and the Z-5 can meet the pitching attitude of take-off more quickly, thus reducing the demand for thrust during take-off and reducing the size of the trailing edge flap.

However, in order to solve the problem of stealth performance degradation caused by bare engine, it is necessary to make up for it by flying height and wide fuselage shielding.

At present, the US Air Force has 527 tankers in service, of which KC- 135 and KC- 10 have been in service for decades, and only 48 newly purchased 179 KC-46A have been delivered. In addition, the US Air Force has reserved 75 aircraft purchase quotas, which will be in KC- 146A and Lockheed Martin &; The best choice was made in the LMXT tanker scheme jointly launched by Airbus.

Then, if all those old tankers are retired, the gap of tankers in the US Air Force will reach more than 200, most of which will be filled by stealth tankers, which will be the main force point of the Z-5 project.