A mock-up of the FCAS/SCAF new generation fighter (NGF) aircraft was displayed at the 2019 Paris Air Show. © David Oliver
Europe’s Competing Future Combat Air Systems By David Oliver
In April 2018, it was announced that the planned Franco-German Next Generation Fighter (NGF) aircraft which is to replace Eurofighter and Rafale fighter aircraft for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project, would be co-developed by Airbus Defence and Space and Dassault Aviation. In July 2018, the former UK Defence Minister Gavin Williamson unveiled a concept of a NGF development as part of the UK’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS) entitled Tempest.
The FCAS/SCAF Known in France as Système de Combat Aérien Futur (SCAF), the Franco-German project is planned to be a complex system of systems combining a wide range of elements connected and operating together, including a NGF aircraft together with medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the existing fleets of combat aircraft that will still operate beyond 2040, future cruise missiles and drones flying in swarms. The overall system will be designed to be interoperable and connected in a larger perimeter with mission aircraft, satellites, 14
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NATO systems and land and naval combat systems. Development of the NGF’s propulsion system is being led by France’s Safran Aircraft Engines and Germany’s MTU Aero Engines. In February 2019 France and Germany awarded the first FCAS/SCAF contract, a two-year €65 million Joint Concept Study (JCS) which identified preferred baseline concepts for the programme’s major pillars such as the NGF, remote carriers (RCs) linked by a Combat Cloud and its Ecosystem embedded in a System-of-Systems architecture. It will assess operational and tech-
