<p>As the development of next-generation manned and unmanned combat aircraft accelerates, securing independent design capabilities for aircraft gas turbine engines across a wide range of thrust classes has emerged as a critical challenge. Internal flows within gas turbines constitute highly nonlinear multiphysics problems in which turbulence, compressibility, heat transfer, and structural response are strongly coupled. Major technical bottlenecks arise from the need to explore high-dimensional design spaces under multiple operating conditions and design objectives, as well as from inefficient iterative design cycles due to the limited reusability of accumulated design knowledge. This paper reviews the key technical challenges, outlines recent trends in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis and design optimization methodologies, and examines the prospects for applying artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, thereby providing an outlook on future technological development directions for defense aircraft engine programs.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>