Lunchtime Lecture: The Global Fighter Market of the Future: Challenges and Opportunities
24 June 2025
On Tuesday 24 June 2025 at 12pm, Prof Amit Gupta will consider what is available across the global fighter market. This lecture will be hosted virtually via Crowdcast and livestreamed from the RAF Museum’s Midlands site.
Talk Outline
In 1979, US Department of Defense (DOD) official Norman Augustine conducted a legendary study of U.S. fighter aircraft cost growth over time. Given the rapid escalation of costs he predicted that “In the year 2054, the entire defence budget will purchase just one aircraft. The aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy [three and a half] days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day.”
While Augustine’s law has yet to become reality, fighter costs have escalated to the point where few countries will be able to develop sixth generation fighters. Even building fourth generation fighters has become expensive to the point that more and more countries are cutting their force levels or desperately seeking cheaper alternatives. This lecture looks at what is available at the higher end and lower levels of the fighter market. How this will serve the needs of future air forces and how cheaper alternatives like drones can be integrated into the force structure of national air forces.
Location
This hybrid lecture will be hosted in-person at the RAF Museum’s Midlands Site in the Lecture Theatre. Attendance in-person is free but registration is required via Digitickets.
Livestream
To attend virtually, register via Crowdcast.
About Professor Amit Gupta
Professor Amit Gupta was on the Faculty of the Department of International Security at the U.S. Air Force Air War College, Maxwell AFB and is now a Senior Fellow with the National Institute of Deterrence Studies, USA. Amit is author, co-author or editor of the following books, Building an Arsenal: The Evolution of Regional Power Force Structures (Praeger), India’s Nuclear Security (Lynne Rienner), The Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific: Maritime Challenges, Opportunities, and Policies (Routledge), Global Security Watch—India (Praeger), Strategic Stability in Asia, (Ashgate) and Air Forces: Next Generation (Ashgate) which was put on the Chief of the UK Royal Air Force Reading List for 2022.
In the realm of popular culture, he has written in academic journals and magazines on Doctor Who, The Defenders, Star Trek, international cricket, and the globalization of Sports. Professor Gupta was educated at the University of Delhi and the Australian National University, and has a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. In his spare time, he coached the Air War College Soccer Team for the Jim Thorpe Inter-Services Competition Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
