Europe’s Competing Future Combat Air Systems

A mock-up of the FCAS/SCAF new generation fighter (NGF) aircraft was displayed at the 2019 Paris Air Show. © David Oliver

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, 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-

The Franco-German-Spanish FCAS/SCAF programme will comprise manned NGF aircraft and unmanned “Loyal Wingman”. © Airbus

nical viability, as well as evaluate programme feasibility of the baseline concepts and identifies joint demonstrators and technology needs.

At the same time, Spain’s minister of defence, Margarita Robles, signed a letter of intent covering the country’s integration into the FCAS/ SCAF programme to replace its EF-18 Hornet fleet and Tranche 1 Eurofighters. The Spanish government claimed that the country was joining the initiative on equal terms with France and Germany and that the project would give Spain leadership visibility within European security and defence policies. Spain was already a partner in the Eurofighter programme together with Germany, Italy and the UK, and the Spanish manufacturer ITP is a shareholder in the Eurojet consortium that builds the EJ200 engine for the Eurofighter. In September 2019 the Spanish government has appointed Indra to lead its efforts on the FCAS programme with France and Germany.

Although Eric Trappier, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation, did not rule out further expansion of the FCAS/SCAF consortium, citing Dassault’s experience leading the six-country effort on the Neuron unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator, but he warns that he would not like it to end up like the Panavia or Eurofighter consortiums. FCAS/SCAF requires a clear prime in order to control the project.

France and Germany signed a €150 million investment agreement in February 2020 to fund research and development and early prototyping of subsystems. During this pilot phase, 18 innovative players worked on 14 projects in different areas, covering the whole range of FCAS elements including combat cloud, connectivity, NGF, RCs, system of systems and sensors. Airbus engineers have worked closely with Geradts GmbH and SFL GmbH to achieve concrete results such as the first flight-test approved launcher of an UAV from a transport aircraft. Kernkonzept GmbH together with Airbus CyberSecurity have shown how IT security can be used for highest security requirements on a governmental cloud system and Hellsicht GmbH trained their algorithms on Airbus-provided datasets, allowing for a unique capability of real time fingerprinting of certain emitters, such as radars.

However, it was not until 17 May 2021, nearly four years after the FCAS/SCAF programme was first launched, that French Minister of Defence Florence Parly formally announced that France, Germany, and Spain had finalised an agreement

Larger, reusable systems that could operate autonomously alongside the manned fighter are being considered for the FCAS/SCAF. © Airbus

to allow industry partners to develop a flying prototype aircraft by 2027, after months of uncertainty surrounding the negotiations. Parly also confirmed that the programme is still expected to reach full operational capacity by 2040.

The partner nations will now access up three designs for the NGF prototype and six variations of RC systems. The remote carriers being considered are both small, single-use drones weighing 100 kilograms or less, as well as larger, reusable systems that could operate autonomously alongside the manned fighter aircraft as a ‘Loyal Wingman’.

In spite of the latest agreement, there remains questions about the exact cost of the programme which point to the fact that they are already significantly higher than the previous cost estimate of €2.5 billion that the governments prescribed to companies as a ceiling last year. The new agreement also includes only one demonstrator, to be built by Dassault. Additional demonstrators, as some German lawmakers have called for, would have to be purchased at extra cost, and the stipulation is that they must be identical to the first one.

Costs are not the only factor of concern for the European SCAF programme. Predictions for the outcome of Germany’s September election indicate a coalition government which may be followed by a yet another comprehensive defence review that may threaten the programme’s continuing development.

The Tempest NGF mock-up seen at BAE Systems facility at Warton. © BAE Systems

The UK FCAS NFG mock-up lined up on the Warton runway with a Eurofighter Tempest trials aircraft in the background. © BAE Systems

The Tempest

The UK’s Tempest programme is a co-funded technology initiative bringing together the Royal Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, Leonardo and MBDA. At its launch the former UK Secretary of State for Defence, Gavin Williamson, announced £2 billion of government funding to oversee the design and build of the aircraft through to 2025, when a final decision would be taken on the programme’s future, with initial operating capability set for 2035.

The leading partner companies have begun developing advanced FCAS technologies. Leonardo UK is developing a new sensor, called the “Multi-Function Radio Frequency System”, that will collect and process unprecedented amounts of data on the battlespace every second. This huge volume of information, processed on-board, is designed to give Tempest a battle winning edge in combat situations, with the ability to locate and target enemies well before they are targeted themselves. BAE Systems has flight testing concepts for Tempest’s “wearable cockpit” technologies, designed to provide pilots in the cockpit or operators on the ground with split-second advantage. The concept sees the physical controls seen in current aircraft cockpits replaced with Augmented and Virtual Reality displays projected directly inside the visor of a helmet, which can be instantly configured to suit any mission. Concepts including humanautonomy teaming are also being developed, where a ‘virtual co-pilot’ could take on some of the pilot’s responsibilities. MBDA UK has also embedded one of its Human Factors engineers within this wearable cockpit team, ensuring the early introduction of weapons concepts that exploit these future technologies. MBDA is involved in both the rival FCAS programmes developing future weapon systems with increased performance, reduced signature, improved sensors, and greater networking to overcome the defenses of the future. Rolls-Royce is developing new advanced propulsion systems for the twin-engine NGF. A next-generation systems will need to be hotter than any previous platform, increasing the efficiency of the engine and meaning it can go further, faster, or produce less carbon dioxide. Rolls-Royce has been exploring advanced composite materials and additive manufacturing as part of this work, producing lightweight, more power-dense components capable of operating at these higher temperatures.

Team Tempest has also drawn on wider UK skills and innovation and another seven companies signed agreements to progress opportunities to work on future combat air concepts and underpinning technologies across Team Tempest including Spirit Aerosystems Belfast, Collins Aerospace in the UK, GE Aviation UK, GKN Aerospace, Martin-Baker, QinetiQ, and Thales UK.

The UK and Swedish governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in July 2019 for both nations to work together in developing future combat aviation technologies. Micael Johansson, Chief Executive Officer, Saab, said: “Combat Air is a key component of Sweden’s defence policy and it is defined as

BAE Systems is flight testing concepts for Tempest’s ‘wearable cockpit’ technologies. © BAE Systems

New advanced propulsion systems for the twin-engine NGF are being studied by Rolls-Royce. © Rolls-Royce

MBDA is developing future weapon systems as part of Team Tempest and for the Franco-German FCAS/SCAF. © David Oliver

a national security interest. Saab is therefore taking these important steps to remain at the forefront of System of Systems development and the advanced technologies within Combat Air. Our announcement of an initial £50 million Future Combat Air investment and a new FCAS centre in the UK, will contribute to closer working relationships with the other FCAS industrial partners and the UK Ministry of Defence.”

In December 2020 the governments of Italy and Sweden signed a trilateral MOU with the UK government in order to strengthen collaboration between the three nation making the Tempest programme very much an international collaborative development partnership. Saab recently stated that it has an active role in FCAS and is currently in close discussions and preparing for the next phase.

Earlier this year Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston, Chief of the Air Staff said: “The RAF is taking a revolutionary approach, looking at a game-changing mix of swarming drones and uncrewed fighter aircraft like Mosquito, alongside piloted fighters like Tempest, that will transform the combat battlespace in a way not seen since the advent of the jet age.” Team Mosquito is led by Spirit AeroSystems Belfast which will develop the RAF’s Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) concept, with a fullscale vehicle flight-test programme expected by the end of 2023. Launched in 2015 by Dstl to understand innovative Combat Air technologies and concepts that offer radical reductions in cost and development time, it is a RAF Rapid Capabilities Office led project under the FCAS Technology Initiative (TI).

After a six-month delay the UK Minister of Defence, Ben Wallace, published the government’s Defence Command Paper entitled “Defence in a Competitive Age”. With reference to the future of the RAF, the review stated that the government will also make a strategic investment of more than £2 billion over the next four years in the FCAS programme which will deliver an innovative mix of crewed, uncrewed and autonomous platforms including swarming drones to deliver an advanced Combat Air system capable of fighting in the most hostile environments. According to the Defence Command Paper, the development of novel technologies, and a step change in how simulators are used for mission rehearsal and training, will enable the RAF to be among the most technologically innovative, productive and lethal air forces in the world.

The review also claimed that the Tempest project will exploit the UK’s unique industrial base to create a 6th Generation Combat Air enterprise. This fully digital enterprise will transform delivery, achieving pace and lowering cost and disrupting traditional approaches to defence procurement. Exploiting model-based design, systems engineering and embedding the latest agile design principles to deliver faster, FCAS

The RAF is looking at a game-changing mix of swarming drones and uncrewed fighter aircraft with manned Tempest fighter aircraft. © RAF

has already created over 1,800 new science, technology, engineering and maths jobs in over 300 companies nationwide, sustaining and supporting over 18,000 existing highly skilled jobs in the sector, as well as tens of thousands more in the wider supply chains across the UK.

The UK government is also deepening FCAS partnering with Italy and Sweden through an international Concept and Assessment Phase beginning in 2021 and is exploring important cooperative opportunities with Japan. At the same time, the Combat Air sector will remain a key pillar of the UK’s global approach as it reinforces interoperability and cooperation with the US and strengthen its relationships with the Typhoon consortium in Europe and other like-minded nations.

Considerations

While both the manned and the unmanned elements of the UK and the parallel FrancoGerman-Spanish FCAS programmes are at an early stage of their developments, questions remain about it making sense to commit to the development of two expensive rival and similar European programmes. Following the launch of Team Tempest in 2018, former Airbus chief executive officer Tom Enders was reported as saying “It was time to seriously look at consolidating and coalescing efforts eventually to one. There is just no room for three different programmes, not even for two.”

It must be remembered that Dassault was part of the Future European Fighter Aircraft (FEFA) programme, which gave birth to Eurofighter, but withdrew from the project in 1985 to pursue the French ACX demonstrator that became the Rafale. In 2012 France and the UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding under which France would join the RAF’s Future Offensive Air System development for an unmanned strike capability, before once again the two nations parted company and decided to develop their own competing FCAS programmes.

Team Mosquito will develop the RAF’s Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) concept. © RAF