Europe’s Future Combat Air Systems at Crossroads

By David Oliver

Team Tempest UK partners are driving forward with the concept and assessment phase of the FCAS programme. © BAE Systems

In June 2021, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a £ 250 million contract with BAE Systems on behalf of Team Tempest UK partners to drive forward the concept and assessment phase of its Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme which is expected to combine a core aircraft, referred to as ‘Tempest’, at the heart of a network of wider capabilities such as uncrewed aircraft, sensors, weapons and advanced data systems to form a next-generation capability designed to enter Royal Air Force (RAF) service from the mid-2030s.

Earlier this year BAE Systems chose the California-based company Wind River to support the technology demonstration work under the RAF’s Tempest programme.

The initiative aims to combine advanced technical capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI) to create opportunities, including the ability to use uncrewed aircraft and swarming technology for controlling drones. The era of software-defined everything is pushing the pace of innovation and transforming market segments ranging from aerospace to industrial, defence to medical, and networking to automotive.

Wind River will provide its VxWorks 653 platform and other safety certification evidence packages. A global leader in delivering software

A pictorial showing a Tempest in flight over London. © BAE Systems

A pictorial showing the concept of Tempest’s swarming technologies. © Crown Copyright

for intelligent connected systems, Wind River offers a comprehensive, edge-to-cloud software portfolio designed to address the challenges and opportunities critical infrastructure companies face when evolving and modernising their systems as they work to realise the full potential of Internet of Things.

The UK FCAS programme was boosted by the announcement in December 2021 that the UK and Japan had signed a Memorandum of Cooperation enabling both nations to pursue joint technologies and the two countries also announced an intention to develop a future fighter jet engine demonstrator as part of their partnership.

Work on the joint engine demonstrator started earlier this year, with the UK investing an initial £ 30 million in planning, digital designs and innovative manufacturing developments. A further £ 200 million of UK funding is expected to go towards developing a full-scale demonstrator power system, some of which will take part at Rolls-Royce’s Filton facility in Bristol.

Over the next four years, the UK is investing more than £ 2 billion into its major national and international endeavour to design the FCAS programme. In parallel, through its F-X programme, Japan is looking to develop a future fighter aircraft to a similar timescale to replace the F-2 aircraft. This work will be led by industry from the two countries, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and IHI in Japan, and Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems in the UK.

The UK MoD is also supporting Japan in the delivery of their Joint New Air-to-Air Missile (JNAAM) programme. As part of Japan’s fiscal year 2022 defence budget, the cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida approved plans to proceed with the co-development of a JNAAM with the United Kingdom. Japan’s Ministry of Defence has secured US$ 3 million

The concept of Tempest operating with the unmanned Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA). © RAF

to fund preparation costs related to air-launch tests of a prototype of the JNAAM for FY 2022, starting in April.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “Strengthening our partnerships in the IndoPacific is a strategic priority and this commitment with Japan, one of our closest security partners in Asia, is a clear example of that.

“Designing a brand-new combat air system with a fighter aircraft at its heart is a highly ambitious project so working with like-minded nations is vital. Building on the technological and industrial strengths of our two countries, we will be exploring a wide-ranging partnership across next-generation combat air technologies.”

Strengthening the defence ties between the two countries further, in March 2022 the UK MoD announced a five-year joint project between Leonardo UK and Japanese firms, for the development of a new fighter radar named Jaguar, to equip the UK’s Tempest and Japan’s F-3 future combat aircraft.

The radar will use universal radio frequency sensor technology which could enable the Armed Forces to better detect future threats from air, land and sea, quickly and accurately locating targets and denying surveillance technology operated by our adversaries. Two demonstrators will be built within the project, one in each country, with the work and learning shared to maximise national expertise.

International partnership remains at the heart of the UK’s approach to combat air, and during a trip to New Delhi in April 2022, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the two countries were going to strengthen their defence and security ties, and partner on the development of fighter jet technology. This statement could refer to an inclusion of India to the Tempest programme, already joined by Japan, Italy, and Sweden.

The Franco-German-Spanish Air Combat System of the Future (SCAF) programme is moving at a slower pace than the Team Tempest FCAS. © Airbus

A concept of the European New Generation Fighter (NGF) for which Dassault has blamed Germany for delays in the programme. © Dassault

Meanwhile, while the French-German-Spanish Système de Combat Aérien Futur (SCAF) programme is still facing serious challenges, on the positive side France’s Directorate General of Armament (DGA) announced on 10 January 2022 that it had undertaken a ground test of a prototype engine for the New Generation Fighter (NGF) aircraft under the Turenne programme, using a powerplant derived from the Safran Aircraft Engines M88 afterburning turbofan currently fitted to the Dassault Rafale combat aircraft. However, in March, Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier said: “I accept to be leader if I have the leverage to be leader. We have made enough efforts. Some do know how to do flight commands, others do not”, frustrated at the lack of progress in talks with Airbus for the European next generation fighter.

Although Germany and Italy are engaged in two competing FCAS projects, with the SCAF programme on the one hand and the Tempest on the other, some analysts see the purchase of F-35s by Germany as threat to the later project “It is a regrettable signal when European defence contracts are awarded to non-European companies”, said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury about purchase of F-35s by Germany and the French and Spanish defence ministers have expressed concern that it would cause further delays and disagreements in SCAF programme.

Germany is at odds with the SCAF partners on the question of arming the system’s remote carriers. © Airbus

A mockup of the four-nation Eurodrone MALE RPAS was unveiled at the 2018 ILA Berlin Airshow. © David Oliver

Although it is not clear how much of Germany’s intent to invest € 100 billion on defence will be sent on the SCAF project, Germany’s new defence minister, Christine Lambrecht has stressed continued German support for the joint programme. However, it took several months of intense negotiations before France, Germany and Spain finally found an agreement on the € 1 billion Phase 1B, a later stage dedicated to the development of a NGF aircraft demonstrator by 2026, in May 2022. In January 2022 the head of Dassault Aviation SA, Eric Trappier warned talks with the German arm of Airbus SE have been bogged down by a power struggle over “division of labour” that could threaten the project. Five year after the project was launched, Trappier said, “We still have difficulties with Airbus. It’s not always easy to negotiate with the Germans.”

Trappier contrasted the disagreements over the NGF with the recent agreement to launch the Airbus-led Franco, German, Italian and Spanish Eurodrone Medium-Altitude, LongRange Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (MALE RPAS), whose flight controls will be built by Dassault. In March 2022 Airbus selected an engine manufactured by General Electric’s Italian subsidiary Avio over an offer from Safran to equip the future Eurodrone.

Should the SCAF collaboration founder, Dassault retains a plan B, Trappier said, without giving details. While he ruled out a collaboration with the UK, saying talks with that country’s suppliers on the future European fighter have ended, he said Airbus does not share his vision of how industry should be organised to develop the NGF.

A further issue for Germany is the approach it takes to part of the SCAF programme. The crewed combat aircraft element of the programme is complemented by what are termed ‘remote carriers’ which will have characteristics similar to those of an uninhabited combat air vehicle. Given that the SCAF will not enter service until around 2040, Berlin still has time to make a decision as to whether or not these platforms will be armed as France and Spain have specified.

Germany is also at odds with its Eurodrone partners. In April 2021 the Bundestag’s budget committee included as a requirement for approving the project that “no ammunition may be purchased for the Eurodrone system, and there will be no tactical weapons training for Eurodrone system operators”.

In May, the former CEO of Airbus Defence and Space, Dirk Hoke took part in a webinar organised by the European Institute of Communication. On subject of the SCAF project, Dirk Hoke said that in the defence field, development of concepts like “combat cloud” and “multi-domain operations” made it critical to step up in digital applications to aerospace. He claimed the point was to be able to compete with the F-35 and its advanced communications systems. For this reason, the SCAF, including the NGF, the Eurodrone and other associated systems would benefit from modern product lifecycle management systems, such as Dassault Système 3DX or Siemens TeamCenter.

Hoke said that there is a large gap in the digital field between China and the US on the one hand, and Europe on the other hand, and most notably in cloud computing and artificial intelligence. While programmes such as the SCAF will rely on sovereign military networks to fill this gap, Dirk Hoke insisted on the critical need for a European cloud, in order to be able to deploy interconnected air, land, and sea systems of systems. From this point of view, he said, “the SCAF programme is not just about developing a Sixth generation aircraft: it is also about creating a whole communication infrastructure.”

Meanwhile, Italy has welcomed Germany’s F-35 purchase because of the workload it brings to the F-35 Final Assembly and Check-Out line operated by Leonardo and Lockheed Martin. It has been speculated that this could result in further incentives for Paris to support a merger between the two FCAS initiatives, a move that Italy has long advocated. In November 2021 Italy’s Air Force Chief of Staff, General Luca Goretti, told members of the Italian parliamentary defence committee, “It is natural that these two realities will merge into one, because investing huge financial resources in two equivalent programmes is unthinkable.”

Such a development may boost Italian-German co-operation, but Trappier has ruled out the prospect of working with the UK, which is forging ahead on the Tempest FCAS project to fly a new fighter aircraft in 2035, and whether the Tempest Team would approve of Germany, France and Spain becoming equal partners remains highly uncertain.

Eurodrone is being developed by a consortium of Airbus Defence and Space, Dassault Aviation and Leonardo. © Airbus