RAF Air & Space Power 2021

Air & Space Power 2021 Air & Space Power 2021 | Future Force 2040

Future Force 2040

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Air & Space Power 2021 Future Force 2040 Editor Simon Michell Project Manager Group Captain Paul Sanger-Davies, Director of Defence Studies (RAF) Editorial Director Barry Davies Designer Ross Ellis Managing Director Andrew Howard Printed by Pensord Front cover image: BAE Systems

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Contents 34

Forewords

13

Rt Hon Ben Wallace MP

Group Captain Chris Layden explains why RAF Lossiemouth is an exciting place to live, work and stay

Secretary of State for Defence

19

Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston

38

KCB CBE ADC, Chief of the Air Staff

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Editor, RAF Air & Space Power 2021: Future Force 2040

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41

30

General Charles Q Brown, Jr

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Operation Pitting – Afghan Hope Air Mobility Force Commander Air Commodore David Manning describes the nation’s largest military air transport operation since the Berlin Airlift of 1948

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UK Space Command Air Vice-Marshal Paul Godfrey reveals the benefits of the new UK Space Command, which was established in April 2021 and has its headquarters at High Wycombe

Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force

RAF – A Global Force

Carrier Strike Group 21 – a global operational deployment Air Marshal Gerry Mayhew CBE, RAF Deputy Commander Operations, reveals the importance of, and lessons learnt from, the UK’s biggest carrier-strike deployment in a generation

Simon Michell

Global Strategic Partner Perspective

RAF Lossiemouth – delivering the Next Generation Air Force today

DE&S – helping to enable the RAF’s Future Force 2040 vision Sir Simon Bollom, CEO of the UK’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), explains how the organisation must adapt to accommodate new technology, capabilities and concepts

CONTENTS

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Cyber resilience – a critical enabler for Future Force 2040 Wing Commander Paul Withers outlines the need for accepting risk in the cybersphere, but mitigating that risk through systemic and sustained training

51

Aircrew training developments Group Captain Andy Turk explains the effectiveness of a blend of virtual- and mixed-reality synthetic training concepts, together with live training sorties

Developing capabilities

55

Team Tempest Air Commodore Jez Holmes discusses the programme to develop the Tempest combat aircraft, which has taken a significant step forward with the addition of Sweden and Italy to the team

59

Protector growth path Jonny King, Vice President of GA-AS UK Ltd, explains how trials of the company’s MQ-9B highlighted the prospects of this remotely piloted aircraft when it enters service with the RAF as Protector RG Mk1

61

Major General Thierry Dupont Belgian Air Component Commander and Chief of Staff of the Belgian Air Force

62

The RAF ISTAR Force – transforming for the future Group Captain Jim Beldon, the RAF’s ISTAR Deputy Force Commander, outlines the transformation that his organisation is currently undergoing

65

Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld AO DSC, Chief of Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force

66

Swarming drones Flight Lieutenant Neil Andrews explains why swarming drones are so important to future RAF operations

68

Human Machine Teaming– focusing on what is important, not what is interesting Group Captain Gareth Prendergast warns of the potential burden drones may introduce if their integration with crewed platforms is not carefully considered in advance

70

Complex weapons Chris Allam, Managing Director at MBDA UK and Group Executive Director of Engineering, highlights the company’s current support to the RAF and its future plans as part of Team Tempest

RAF – Future Force

72

Future Combat Air capability – the ‘Typhoon-Tempest continuum’ BAE Systems’ John Stocker and Anthony Gregory explain how continuous improvements to Typhoon will feed into the Tempest Programme and ensure continuity of Combat Air capability and skills

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CONTENTS

77

Lightning and Typhoon – future connected operations

88

Wing Commander Lee Gordon highlights how future operations will benefit from current experimentation in data-link integration

80

Nexus – Combat Cloud Squadron Leader Darren Goldstraw, Head of the AIX (Air Information Experimentation) programme, explains how the RAF’s Nexus Combat Cloud was developed

84

Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) –Commanding the future battlespace Paul Tremelling, Business Development Director at Northrop Grumman, explains why a greater ability to share information across all domains is essential

86

Zero emissions Michael Cervenka, President of UK-based Vertical Aerospace, explains the role that zero-emission aircraft will play in the future of sustainable aviation

10

Group Captain Maurice Dixon from the Astra Sustainability team explains the RAF’s aim of achieving a Net Zero energy/fuels CO2e emissions status where possible by 2040

Lieutenant General Luca Goretti Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force

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Prototyping the Sustainable Next Generation Air Force

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People capability and career development

91

RAF career paths to 2040 – Next Generation career pathways Air Vice-Marshal Maria Byford, Chief of Staff Personnel, outlines how her team is preparing for RAF personnel having the opportunity to dip in and out of uniformed serviced during their working lives

93

Training with augmented reality Cranfield University’s Professor John Ahmet Erkoyuncu describes how augmented reality is adding a new dimension to training

96

The RAF Talent Strategy Wing Commander Paul Webber on the RAF Talent Strategy and the progress made to date

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FOREWORD

Rt Hon Ben Wallace MP Secretary of State for Defence

2021

has once again underlined the enduring importance of our air capabilities. In Afghanistan, we saw the RAF come to the fore, taking part in the biggest airlift for 70 years as part of Operation Pitting. In those tense August weeks they conducted some 330 flights, covering 260,000 miles and evacuating more than 15,000 people. The A400M Atlas transport aircraft proved itself as an invaluable asset during this operation, underlining its growing importance to the UK’s air mobility fleet. More than a thousand miles away in Iraq and Syria, our airmen and women kept up the relentless pressure on Daesh. In the past seven years they’ve provided one-third of all coalition intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance while releasing over 4,000 precision weapons. Our RAF has also supported NATO’s mission

to police Black Sea skies and helped fight Covid by flying vaccines around the globe; to Cyprus, to the Falklands, to the South Pole.

Meanwhile, on the home front, the constant vigilance of our Quick Reaction Alert squadrons has kept British airspace safe. But the threat keeps moving on and we must move with it. We’re living in a new age of systemic competition.

Our adversaries are challenging us not just in the air, but increasingly in space. They are adept at anti-access and area denial. They are deploying electronic warfare and developing long-range precision strike capabilities. And they are testing anti-satellite missiles with the potential to disrupt the systems on which our modern way of life depends.

In the face of this and other mounting pressures, our Integrated Review and Defence Command Paper outlined how the UK would use its growing budget to make the three

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FOREWORD

A Royal Air Force Poseidon flies over the coast of Scotland on a training flight over the Moray Firth (PHOTO: CPL ADAM FLETCHER/MOD/CROWN COPYRIGHT)

Services more persistent, more proactive and more forward deployed. And the Defence and Security Industrial Strategy highlighted our strategic approach to the UK’s defence and security industrial sectors, providing state-of-the-art equipment, enhancing resilience and incentivising innovation.

What will that mean for our future Air Force? First, it will be stealthier. In an era of sub-threshold competition, if you can’t hide and find your opponent you are vulnerable. The F-35B Lightning fast jet has initiated this process, which will be further enhanced with the introduction of the Tempest.

Second, the RAF will be more persistent and better able to gather vital information. It will have Protector drones that can fly over 40 hours at a time, scanning the skies and terrain below.

Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft will scour the seas above and below the water. And, we will have our new Space Command training its sights on space – eventually benefiting from upgraded Skynet communications and a UK-built Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance satellite constellation.

Tomorrow’s Air Force will be smarter too – with Future Combat Air Systems (FCAS) blending artificial intelligence, deep learning, novel sensors and communications technologies.

With new E-7 Wedgetail coming in to transform both our UK Airborne Early Warning and Control capability and our contribution to NATO. And, with our £6.6 billion R&D budget

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bringing through an array of new technologies, from sensors and combat cloud capabilities to multi-domain drone swarms.

We will work closely with our industrial partners to innovate and drive the capabilities of the future, not least with FCAS, where we are investing in partnerships with industry and allies.

Finally, our future RAF will be seamless. More integrated across the domains and more interoperable with our allies – allowing us to make better decisions at the speed of relevance.

Babel Fish trials, led by the Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO), have pioneered the UK’s Nexus combat cloud capability, which will further enable the UK’s multi-domain operations and align the UK with our allies as they embed Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2).

This year, we’ve had a taste of how that integration can operate in practice, with British and American F-35 pilots not merely flying from the decks of our great HMS Queen Elizabeth, but practising fighting in virtual space as part of their synthetic training. 2021 saw the RAF excel by demonstrating the speed, precision, agility and flexibility of air power, but 2022 will be a time for them to aim even higher. Accelerating their transformation through the game-changing Astra programme. Outpacing our adversaries through further breakthroughs led by the RCO and its Team Tempest. And, embracing the challenge laid down in their famous motto from ‘adversity to the stars’.

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FOREWORD

Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston KCB CBE ADC, Chief of the Air Staff

I

am delighted to welcome you to this latest edition of Air and Space Power. Working through the pandemic has been extraordinarily testing and the operational demand has been relentless. I am delighted at the way the Royal Air Force has continued to deliver on its commitment to UK Defence, the way we have continued to support the national effort against Covid-19, the way we have supported our international allies, and the way we have continued to adapt and build our Next Generation Royal Air Force, laying the foundations of a global air and space force fit for the future.

In a fast-changing world we must innovate and evolve to remain relevant in what we do. That fast-changing and

uncertain world has been a key driver of the significant announcements made in the UK over the last year around security and defence, Britain’s place in the world, the role of the UK Armed Forces, and, of course, the role of air and space power in all that.

What the Royal Air Force does on behalf of the nation today is as important as it has ever been, because air and space power gives our Government the choice and ability to act or signal strategically on a global stage, at range, at speed and precisely.

Day after day, our people demonstrate the utility of air and space power, from protecting our skies and patrolling our seas, to bolstering our NATO allies, monitoring threats

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FOREWORD

(left to right) Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tim Fraser; Air Vice Marshall Paul Godfrey; Minister for Defence Procurement Jeremy Quin MP; Commander, UK Strategic Command General Sir Patrick Sanders; and Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston attended a special ceremony at RAF High Wycombe to mark the official opening of UK Space Command on 29 July 2021 (PHOTO: CPL ED WRIGHT RAF/MOD/CROWN COPYRIGHT)

to our critical interests in space, on operations in Mali, or taking the fight to Daesh in their sanctuaries in Syria and Iraq.

This year, we recognised the criticality of the Space Domain to national security and in all of our day-to-day lives, through our rapid establishment of UK Space Command at RAF High Wycombe, bringing in staff from across the three Services, the civil service and industry in a truly national endeavour.

We became a maritime air force again too, with Poseidon patrolling our seas, and 617 Squadron F-35Bs embarked on HMS Queen Elizabeth as part of the Carrier Strike Group 21 operational deployment to the Indo-Pacific.

This significant deployment is the physical manifestation of global Britain, and at its heart is air power and a unique partnership between the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy.

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Contributions to this edition reflect our vital international relationships, with contributions from our partner air forces including Australia, Belgium, Italy and the United States. We look at some of our exciting new platforms and equipment programmes with articles on Protector and Wedgetail, and on the challenges of developing new ways of delivering air power through the Alvina swarming drones programme. We will highlight how Team Tempest, led by our Rapid Capabilities Office, is super-charging the development of our Future Combat Air System, and how the Royal Air Force can embrace emerging technology while becoming increasingly sustainable, meeting our ambition of being a Net Zero Air and Space Force by 2040.

I hope you enjoy every one of these fascinating articles shaping all our thinking about the Air and Space Force of 2040 and beyond.

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FOREWORD

Simon Michell Editor, RAF Air & Space Power 2021: Future Force 2040

R

AF Air and Space Power 2021: Future Force 2040 highlights some truly spectacular milestones achieved by the RAF and its partners over the past year. Perhaps foremost among them is the inaugural operational deployment of the UK Carrier Strike Group 21 (CSG21) and its two squadrons of F-35B Lightnings – the RAF’s ‘Dambusters’ 617 Squadron and the United States Marine Corps VFMA-211 ‘Wake Island Avengers’.

Air Marshal Gerry Mayhew CBE, Deputy Commander (Operations) outlines the significance of this achievement and the lessons it has produced for the recommencement of UK aircraft-carrier operations. This remarkable deployment was a clear sign of Global Britain at its best.

While CSG21 was under way, the RAF supported another equally extraordinary tasking – Operation Pitting. The removal from danger of over 15,000 entitled personnel – mostly Afghan nationals – from Kabul by the RAF Air Mobility Force exemplified the agility and flexibility of the RAF’s transport fleets. The Mobility Force Commander who helped shape the plan and execute the operation, Air Commodore David Manning, reveals the intricacies of the combined strategic and tactical airlift concept that enabled his force to achieve remarkable rates of sorties during August.

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Yet another ground-breaking event took place just before Operation Pitting began, the standing up of the UK’s Space Command. Air Vice Marshal Paul Godfrey, the first Head of Space Command, outlines the role of the command and his plans for the future. Next year, will see satellites launched into space from UK soil. Not only will this help to grow the space sector in the UK, it will also deliver enhanced operational choice for the UK in space.

Additional highlights in this edition include a roundup of the Tempest programme by the Rapid Capabilities Office’s Air Commodore Jez Holmes, a review of the ISTAR Force by its Deputy Commander, Group Captain Jim Beldon, and a spotlight on the successes of MQ-9B Protector in the UK over the summer by Jonny King of General Atomics UK Ltd. We are indebted to the new Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force (USAF), General Charles Q Brown, Jr, for his contribution to this year’s issue. General Brown’s reflections on the close working relationship between the RAF and the USAF, and the friendship between its two leaders, highlight the unique bond and shared goals and visions of the two organisations, and offer much promise for the future.

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GLOBAL STRATEGIC PARTNER PERSPECTIVE

General Charles Q Brown, Jr Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force Resolute Alliance: RAF and USAF Combined Vision

The unprecedented challenges facing the RAF and USAF have scarcely been more acute, nor posed such a direct test to the primacy of our warfighting capabilities.

Our nations’ histories of cooperation and long-term commitment in both air and space will continue to send a powerful message to our adversaries and those who oppose and threaten our common values.

Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Sir Mike Wigston recently stated the RAF must “seize this moment and be radically forward-looking, accelerating our vision for an Air and Space Force of the future.” He added, “While instability brings strategic risk, its uncertain nature also drives innovation and necessitates evolution.” ACM Wigston emphasizes that the RAF is at an inflection point, with the chance for a “strategic reset”.

The US and the UK have a long history of bilateral cooperation that reflects our common language, values, ideals and the democratic practices of our two great nations, as well as common challenges to our security and prosperity. As emphasised in the revised Combined Air and Space Power: A Shared USAF, USSF, and RAF Vision for 21st Century Cooperation, which I had the pleasure of signing alongside ACM Wigston and General Raymond at the Pentagon this April, we are driven by common strategic imperatives and must be able to operate seamlessly and interchangeably as a single force.

Our collaboration spans from the highest levels of conceptual thinking to the development of shared tactics, techniques and procedures.

My strategic approach, Accelerate Change or Lose, demands change of the status quo to undertake the

“The visions of the RAF and USAF complement one another” required transformation from the Air Force of yesterday and today to one that is relevant in future contested environments. Similarly, the RAF’s 2040 strategic Astra vision emphasises the

journey and urgency of seeking out and understanding future threats, while investing in industry and innovation to develop the capabilities to defeat them. The visions of the RAF and USAF complement one another via interoperability across all domains, as our forces conduct a wholesale modernisation effort to enhance credible deterrence.

Our historical alliance has provided a strategic advantage across the warfighting spectrum.

Amid rising challenges from adversaries who oppose our shared vision for the future, we will continue to seek, employ and exploit all avenues to expand our combined capabilities.

Through our dedicated approach towards innovation and radical modernisation, current and future investments in emerging technologies must be aligned and

General Charles Q Brown, Jr (right) signs the Shared Vision Statement with US Chief of Space Operations General John W Raymond (left) and Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, Chief of the Air Staff, RAF (centre) at the Pentagon (PHOTO: ERIC R DIETRICH/USAF)

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Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston and General Charles Q Brown, Jr, pictured during their Pentagon meeting (PHOTO: ERIC R DIETRICH/USAF)

interoperable to outpace and outleverage our competitors – forcing dilemmas across all domains.

Our forces will continue to adapt and define the new character of warfighting presented by the information age, a move from mass mobilization to an era of speed and relevance in decisions, steadfast protection of data, and reliance on our combined strategic advantage – our Airmen.

Our UK allies have risen to new and greater heights to face these diverse challenges. The establishment of the UK Space Command and release of its first National Space Strategy, its long-term commitment to the F-35 programme, its robust investments in sixth-generation technology via the Future Combat Air System, and the UK’s strategic tilt towards the Indo-Pacific theatre, while continuing to prioritise transatlantic cooperation, are

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significant milestones on the journey to the next generation of the Royal Air Force.

Most recently, the Combined Force’s deployment of Carrier Strike Group 21 through the South China Sea, complete with a contingent of

“The future operating environment will not be limited by lines on maps or by geography... these challenges will test our approach and target our most vulnerable areas.” We will continue to uphold our strong bilateral cooperation to leverage our strengths to present

“Our forces will continue to adapt and define the new character of warfighting presented by the information age” USMC F-35Bs on HMS Queen Elizabeth, has served as a strong message of both deterrence and assurance. This effort is closely aligned with ongoing US efforts to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

As the UK’s Defence in a Competitive Age stated so aptly,

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multiple dilemmas across all domains against our strategic competitors.

I believe that success takes help... failure you can do alone. I’m confident that, together, we can succeed, and I’m happy to be in lockstep with the RAF and good friends with ACM Wigston. “Per Ardua Ad Astra...”

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OPERATION PITTING

Afghan Hope The Air Mobility Force Commander, Air Commodore David Manning, tells Simon Michell how his Force successfully undertook the nation’s largest military air transport operation since the Berlin Airlift of 1948

T

Afghan nationals bound for Dubai World Central airport on an RAF Air Mobility Force transport aircraft (PHOTO: LPHOT BEN SHREAD/MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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he withdrawal of US and coalition troops from Afghanistan by 11 September 2021 was a widely publicised proposal. To help achieve this target, the UK began the recovery of its equipment, stores and personnel in a busy, but very measured and timely, fashion. This first phase took place over a two-month period that started just after Easter 2021. During this period of the withdrawal, the RAF’s Air Mobility Force, headed by Air Commodore (Air Cdre) David Manning, transported people and freight from around the wider Middle East, including Afghanistan, back to the UK and other locations.

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While this task was underway, a more targeted plan was being drawn up by the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) in Northwood, North London – ably assisted by Air Cdre Manning’s Air Mobility Force and Number 11 Group Air Planners. What transpired over the four and a half weeks of August would capture the attention of the entire world.

Launching the plan On 1 August 2021, Operation Pitting was launched.

The plan was to recover UK forces, equipment and stores, as well as approximately 7,000 entitled

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personnel (predominantly Afghan nationals) back to the UK via Kabul airport by the end of August. This was to align with US intentions to quit Afghanistan by 11 September. In the beginning, this too was a measured and timely activity, much like the earlier more general withdrawal in spring. There was a lot of two-way traffic in the early stages. People, stores and equipment were forward-deployed to an airbase in the Middle East and Kabul International Airport to supervise, sustain and undertake the recovery, while people, equipment and baggage were flown out of Kabul en route to the UK. Suddenly, on 13 August, just about halfway through the plan, “the pace dramatically changed,” explains Manning. The worst-possible, and leastexpected, scenario happened – the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, fell into the hands of the Taliban, who became the country’s de facto rulers.

No longer was there a friendly government on hand to help with the departure. Instead, a very hostile and uncooperative force now held sway.

“Effectively, we went from a measured withdrawal into a frenetic non-combatant evacuation operation – a NEO,” says Manning. Panic gripped the entire nation. Instead of the orderly flows of Afghans that were coming to the airport to board aircraft and leave, it seemed like half the population had rushed there en masse to flee the country.

This changed everything. “The fall of Kabul meant we now had to get as many UK Nationals and entitled Afghans out of the country as we possibly could. To do this, we had to recalibrate and accept a significant amount of carefully managed operational risk,” says Manning. Instead of flying out

load that we would normally carry. My crews had to work out the weight of the aircraft getting airborne out of Kabul and then calculate how many people they could carry in the main cabin. Passengers were sat on the floor, tied to each other and the aircraft to provide a degree of safety. We were operating well beyond normal expectations, but still inside operational safety limits,” Manning reveals.

An A400M Atlas transporter aircraft readies for departure at RAF Brize Norton as part of Operation Pitting (PHOTO: MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

“The fall of Kabul meant we now had to get as many UK Nationals and entitled Afghans out of the country as we possibly could” circa 90 passengers on C-130 and A400M aircraft, and 138 on C-17 flights, the Air Mobility Force was now taking out up to 436 in a single C-17 sortie (an RAF record) and 203 on an A400M Atlas. This was not a problem in itself; it did, however, put an unforeseen strain on the plan, which the Air Component Commander, Air Cdre Strasdin, was delivering, and introduced an element of risk to the passengers.

From the night of 13 August onwards, the flying programme was dramatically expanded, as were the load parameters. “The amount of aircraft we were using on a daily basis increased significantly, but the key bit was the trebling of the passenger

Over the next two and a half weeks there was no let-up in the flow of aircraft in and out of the airport. It was constant throughout the night and day – all done with engines running and, when the runway lights failed, night landings necessitated the use of night-vision googles. It was noisy, smelly and, for the Afghans, confusing and frightening.

All in all, 15,063 Entitled Persons were flown out.

More than 2,100 were children, with the youngest only a day old. The Air Mobility Force flew 166 sorties, moving 47 tonnes of freight and 10 tonnes of baggage. More than 261,000 miles were flown over 11,000 flying hours.

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The RAF’s primary tactical transporter ferried spares and people between the strategic and tactical airbridges during Operation Pitting (PHOTO: CPL LEE MATTHEWS/MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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Foresight and vision The vision of the original Operation Pitting plan proved overwhelmingly successful. By establishing two air bridges – one strategic and one tactical – there was a constant availability of aircraft on tap.

The strategic airbridge, serviced by 99 Squadron’s (Sqn’s) C-17s and 10/101 Sqn’s Voyager aircraft, spanned RAF Brize Norton – home of the Air Mobility Force – to a hub in the Middle East. This was established to enable supplies and spares to be brought into theatre to keep the planes in the air.

The tactical airbridge from the Middle East base to Kabul could only be flown by A400Ms (70 Sqn/XXIV Sqn), C-17s (99 Sqn) and C-130s (47 Sqn) as they were equipped with self-protection systems. This airbridge formed the escape route to Dubai World Central airport (DWC) where the passengers could board charter flights to civil airports in the UK. Those that did not make it on the charter flights were taken by Voyager aircraft from the Middle East hub to RAF Brize Norton.

Halfway through the operation, the Chief of the Air Staff, ACM Sir Mike Wigston phoned Air Cdre Manning to see how things were progressing.

He reflected that this was a “once-in-a-generation event” that would go down in RAF history. Air Cdre Manning’s own reflections are a testament to everyone who helped to make it happen. “The beauty of how we set it up, in terms of the strategic airbridge feeding the tactical airbridge, is that, out of all the 166 sorties we flew, we didn’t lose one as a result of unserviceability; and the heroes were the engineers who put in incredibly long hours.

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“In terms of professional pride, it doesn’t get any better than that, really – a NEO – a really complex and challenging operation that was very demanding for the crews and ground staff. The Air Mobility Force, and supporting Forces, stepped up to the plate and were not found wanting. I am in absolute awe of what they did – both the deployed element and the people back at Brize Norton, who rose to the challenge of handling well in excess of 200 passengers a night after their day jobs were complete.

“The Air Mobility Force, and supporting Forces, stepped up to the plate and were not found wanting. I am in absolute awe of what they did” “It was a Whole Force effort – the whole of the Air Mobility Force – regulars, reservists, our civil service colleagues and our industry partners, as well as our colleagues from the Force Protection and Support Forces who enabled our output as part of the wider global air mobility enterprise. It clearly demonstrated the flexibility, agility and speed of air power as delivered by the Air Mobility Force. It was a huge privilege to be part of,” Manning concludes.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Nick Chaffey Chief Executive UK, Europe and Middle East, Northrop Grumman Corporation

What role will space play in the RAF’s Future Force 2040?

Air’s ‘high ground,’ space is a recognised enabler of air, as well as both ground and maritime operations – shaping the strategic environment and improving the efficacy and survivability of key platforms to extend UK force projection. With space serving as an essential component of multi-domain integration (MDI), it is increasingly central to delivering information advantage. The flexible, scalable payload capabilities now available provide the potential for constant, assured, jam-resistant, covert communications for tactical and strategic warfighters. UK air defence aspirations require assurance of space-based communications to enable accurate, protected PNT. Equally, space is presently considered the best vantage point for monitoring hypersonic threats. Protected, extremely high-frequency satellite communications are thus set to provide a foundation to facilitate joint and allied operations and missions for the Future Force 2040.

How is NG helping the RAF achieve information advantage?

We see information advantage as the critical determinant of future warfighting success – ultimately derived from

the combination of comprehensive, persistent connectivity with superior data exploitation. Digital transformation will enable the delivery of information advantage through the rapid evolution of systems to match the changing strategic environment; accelerating operations while also enhancing affordability.

Delivering connectivity requires the design and delivery of open architecture, platform agnostic, alldomain technologies. Today we provide this through systems such as the US Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS), which offers theatre-wide multiple fusedsensor, best-shooter capability. While enterprise architectures are critical, at the tactical edge resilience is paramount, as delivered by the Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL) and our wider Communications, Navigation and Identification solutions, used on the F-35.

exchanges and manage priorities in near real-time, enabling us to model the connectivity requirements of the joint enterprise.

In space, we are demonstrating the ability to leverage OneWeb’s LEO satellites, to transport data from onorbit sensors to users on the ground, providing assured PNT for traditional and emerging autonomous missions alike.

To what extent will autonomy feature in future air combat operations?

We see Project Mosquito/LANCA as an excellent example of how autonomy will play into the future air battlespace.

Project Mosquito is the technology demonstrator for the UK’s first uncrewed combat air system (UCAS). Built to deploy alongside the RAF’s F-35, Typhoon and next-generation Tempest, the UCAS will enhance the protection, survivability

“Digital transformation is changing the focus of our approach” But digital transformation expands wider than technology to include both processes and mindset. It is changing the focus of our approach to emphasise the digital design, rather than the product. In software, where the big gains in capability will be delivered, we have moved beyond the philosophy of accrediting the software factory rather than the product; we have now developed an accredited ‘factory for a factory’. This leads to the ability for agile teams to create the environments they need with the toolsets they require, in order to meet the customer’s mission challenge in vastly reduced timescales.

How can NG deliver network resilience for Future Force 2040?

Digital twinning offers the ability to continuously identify the critical data

and information advantage of these non-attritable platforms. Northrop Grumman is a partner in Team Mosquito.

New distributed autonomous and responsive control architectures can similarly be leveraged to reduce the reliance of unmanned systems on continuous communications and allow operators to control large numbers of assets with scalable degrees of human oversight, addressing the present combat mass challenges.

Appropriate decisions can be taken at machine speed, to get inside the decision cycle of the adversary and deliver information advantage.

Future autonomous platforms, powered by collaborative autonomy, thus stand to be revolutionary in deterring or, if necessary, engaging adversaries on battlefields of the future.

www.northropgrumman.com/UK

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RAF LOSSIEMOUTH

Delivering the Next Generation Air Force today Station Commander Group Captain Chris Layden explains why RAF Lossiemouth is an exciting place to live, work and stay

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AF Lossiemouth is transforming in contact to deliver next-generation air and space power, while operating every hour of every day to secure the skies and seas around the UK, and to protect Britain’s interests worldwide. Its strategic location offers access to the Atlantic and High North, and its importance is clear from the almost-unprecedented investment in its growth.

Crew from RAF Lossiemouth at work aboard the P-8A Poseidon

Integrated for advantage Lossiemouth hosts four Typhoon squadrons, two Poseidon maritime patrol squadrons, a Force Protection Wing (FPW) and, soon, the E-7 Wedgetail

(PHOTO: MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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airborne early warning and control aircraft. Co-location creates an outstanding opportunity to integrate, experiment and unlock the full potential of each platform. Integrating the impressive ISTAR, C2 and attack capabilities of Poseidon and Typhoon offers a potent mix that will be further augmented by E-7.

The same is true across the warfighting domains.

The arrival of Poseidon has seen long-standing air/ maritime relationships reinvigorated for the future.

Space and cyber are front and centre, not only for mission support, but through the understanding

(above) The potent mix of P-8A Poseidon with Typhoon will be even more powerful once E-7 Wedgetail is introduced into service; (left) The new P-8A Poseidon building at RAF Lossiemouth (PHOTOS: MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

“The arrival of Poseidon has seen long-standing air/maritime relationships reinvigorated for the future. Space and cyber are front and centre” that next-generation air operations will often set the conditions for effects in other domains. The Station is closely integrated in NATO and a range of coalitions, from anti-submarine warfare (ASW) to defence engagement, building interoperability with partners ranging from Estonia to Egypt.

Throughout, the unifying theme is cognitive effect – from showing solidarity with allies to deterring adversaries through demonstrations of hard power.

Operating constantly RAF Lossiemouth operates constantly, across a spectrum ranging from protection and engagement

to constraining adversaries and warfighting. The Station’s Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) aircraft secure the skies over the United Kingdom every minute of every day. The last two NATO Air Policing deployments were delivered by Lossiemouth squadrons.

Since April 2020, the Poseidon has flown ASW operations to protect the nuclear deterrent, proving itself against the most difficult targets the adversary can deploy. Some 60% of the Typhoon contribution to operations in the Levant comes from Lossiemouth, and recent months have seen a shift towards a more agile stance, alternating between counter-Daesh missions and Defence Engagement throughout

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RAF and US Navy P-8A Poseidons stand in readiness on the tarmac at RAF Lossiemouth (PHOTO: MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

the region. Our warfighting capability was clear from the first combat employment of the Storm Shadow cruise missile from a Typhoon. And this exceptional tempo was sustained throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, with 5 FPW playing a central role in military aid to the civil authorities.

Growth and evolution RAF Lossiemouth is growing and evolving almost beyond recognition, with over £470m invested in infrastructure. The airfield has been resurfaced and enlarged, the Atlantic Building has opened for Poseidon, new Typhoon facilities and simulators are under construction and updated communications, power and drainage systems will follow shortly. The US Navy has contributed millions to the programme in order to be able to operate from Lossiemouth.

Most importantly, the programme includes a new gym and single living accommodation that will be the best in the UK Defence estate.

A next-generation workforce Our people are central to delivering next-generation air and space power. Lossiemouth receives disproportionate numbers of newly promoted

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personnel and service joiners, and they bring new perspectives and ideas that will shape the RAF’s future. Astra, the next-generation transformation programme, has been enthusiastically embraced at Lossiemouth, with most initiatives coming from junior ranks and young officers. “Team Lossie” embraces diversity, not only in forums such as the Big Conversation, but in its own makeup.

Lossiemouth boasts a broad Whole Force spectrum, with reservists on all possible terms of service, and an increasing number of contractors and industry partners. The future is bright, with a vibrant high-tech sector in Moray and the prospect of a new Aviation and Advanced Technology Innovation Campus outside the Station as part of the HMG/ScotGov Moray Growth Deal.

Overall, RAF Lossiemouth is an exciting place to live, work and stay. The Station is operating constantly to secure the skies and seas around the UK, and safeguard Britain’s interests worldwide.

It is receiving huge investment, transforming in contact to deliver next-generation air and space power, today. And, it is home to a diverse, committed and energetic workforce in whose hands the future could not be more secure.

Taking world-leading defence technology into the future battlespace

www.eurofighter.com

Effective

Proven

Trusted

RAF – A GLOBAL FORCE

CARRIER STRIKE GROUP 21

A global operational deployment Air Marshal Gerry Mayhew CBE, RAF Deputy Commander Operations, reveals the importance of, and lessons learnt from, the UK’s biggest carrier-strike deployment in a generation – CSG21. Simon Michell reports

F-35Bs from RAF 617 Squadron undertook multiple operational sorties against adversaries during CSG21 (PHOTO: UNAISI LUKE/MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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hen the last Harrier GR9 flew off HMS Ark Royal in November 2010, the UK’s ability to fly UK fast jets off British warships was temporarily suspended.

It would take a decade before an operational fast-jet squadron (617 Squadron from RAF Marham) again landed on a Royal Navy (RN) aircraft carrier – HMS Queen Elizabeth. In May 2021, less than a year after this milestone, the ship with two squadrons of

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F-35Bs – RAF 617 Squadron (‘Dambusters’) and US Marine Corps (USMC) VFMA-211 (‘Wake Island Avengers’) – set off on an eight-month deployment, dubbed Carrier Strike Group 21 (CSG21). This epic voyage would see a fleet of British and allied warships, led by an RN aircraft carrier, traverse the Mediterranean, transit the Suez Canal and sail past India, before proceeding through the South China Sea and into the Pacific.

RAF – A GLOBAL FORCE

Originally, the CSG21 deployment had been envisaged as a Mediterranean operation, but the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, and the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, together with Ministry of Defence ministers, proposed a far more ambitious endeavour that would take them half way around the world to the coast of Japan.

“The expansion in the scope recognises a change in the geopolitical nature of today’s world,” says Air Marshal (Air Mshl) Gerry Mayhew, the RAF’s Deputy Commander responsible for operations and de facto head of the RAF’s contribution to the task force.

“Although the counterterrorism and close-air-support missions in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean are still very relevant, there are now global challenges to face down further afield,” he adds.

Above all, CSG21 is an operational deployment during which the F-35s have participated not just in military exercises, but actual operations against threats and adversaries. “CSG21 is fundamentally about Global Britain and proving an operational (warfighting) capability for the Strike Force and our Lightning jets,” explains Air Mshl Mayhew. This operational capability was indeed proven on a multiplicity of engagements on a variety of fronts.

“While the F-35Bs were on the mission matrix for operations in Iraq and Syria, they were also undertaking other missions simultaneously in the eastern Mediterranean and up into the Black Sea. It wasn’t just about Operation Shader, but about a multitude of operations in the region,” he explains.

An apposite example of this is that F-35Bs from the carrier group were on hand and working with allies while HMS Defender was being harassed in the Black Sea by Russian warships and aircraft as she enforced freedom of navigation in international waters to the south of the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Testing the Global Support System The RAF’s 617 Squadron had been on Operation Shader two years earlier as part of ‘Lightning Dawn’, which was prosecuted from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus in May 2019. This activity helped to de-risk CSG21 by ironing out potential supply chain problems for spares, weapons and other stores. However, that was a relatively small operation compared to the F-35Bs’ deployment in the Indo-Pacific region, where all three variants of the aircraft are operating – the land-based F-35A, the STOVL Bs and the conventional carrier (Cats and traps) Cs. “When we realised how many F-35 strike groups are operating in the region we knew that was going to be a particularly challenging period for the F-35 Global Support System. That said, so far, we have not missed a step, despite the multiple challenges of Covid, Brexit and recent global supply

chain struggles,” confirms Air Mshl Mayhew. “I am extremely grateful to all our industry and programme partners who have made, and continue to make, this deployment such a resounding success,” he says.

Growing partnerships Once the deployment is over, 2022 will be a time to regather and reset. Significantly, 617 Squadron will continue for a while as the UK’s sole F-35B operational squadron – not just at sea, but also from the land – and both areas of expertise need to be maintained and grown. Existing partnerships, particularly with the US Air Force, USMC, US Navy and F-35 operators the world over, will also need to be grown as the new UK squadrons come on line – 207 (RAF – OCU) and 809 (Naval Air Squadron). So far, the partnership with the USMC has proven to be incredibly strong. “The cooperation between the RAF and USMC has been superb, not just on CSG21, but through many years on the build up to this deployment. 617 and VFMA211 worked hand-in-glove throughout the whole of the deployment,” Air Mshl Mayhew highlights.

The deployment will continue through to the end of 2021 and more lessons will be learned on that journey. Air Mshl Mayhew is pleased with what has been achieved so far: “CSG21 is about our two Services and other departments coming closer together to deliver this capability. I am delighted with how those relationships have developed.” He adds, however, that they cannot be complacent.

“Both the RAF and the RN recognise that the geopolitical context has changed and will continue to change, and the capability of F-35Bs and the CSG has also got to evolve to stay relevant.”

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CSG21 supported freedom of navigation voyages in the Black Sea and undertook Operation Shader sorties whilst in the eastern Mediterranean (PHOTO: UNAISI LUKE/MOD/CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Supporting the RAF’s 2040 vision for MDI and ISR How will Raytheon UK’s MDI strategy help the future force?

Jeff Lewis Chief Executive Officer, Raytheon UK

How is Raytheon UK helping decision-makers benefit from data quicker?

For more than 30 years, Raytheon UK has been a major player in the provision of data services and data security to our customers. And, while the speed of provision is increasing, the security of that data is what’s paramount. We face challenges that are constantly mutating, with ever-increasing threats to the uninterrupted supply of operational data and intelligence.

Resilience is key. That’s why Raytheon UK is continuing to make the investment in cloud security assurance, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

We’re also at the top of our game in terms of cyber vulnerability assessment.

Responding to customer demands for shrinking the time factor in the data loop will require embracing Multi-Domain Integration (MDI), which is a concept that we’re already deeply involved with in the US at Raytheon Technologies (RTX).

www.raytheon.com/uk

The MDI concept is truly the next step in 21st-century defence – it’s about sharing data at rapid speed across all domains: land, sea, air, space, electromagnetic and cyber. Raytheon Technologies is already working with the US Department of Defense (DoD) on its Joint AllDomain Command and Control (JADC2) programme. JADC2 envisions providing a cloud-like environment for the Joint force to share intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data, transmitting across many communications networks.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) is also now stepping up and launching efforts of its own in this regard. Being able to exploit concepts, research and systems development from the US gives us a unique advantage in delivering future capabilities to our government customers here, including the RAF. As the MOD develops its own MDI strategy, we’re standing by to offer our expertise and skill sets to make it a reality.

Raytheon UK has been active in the ISR arena for a number of years, particularly with the Sentinel R1 surveillance system for the RAF. What does the future hold?

Sentinel and its crews did sterling service during the life of the programme and we were glad to be a part of it. In other ISR efforts, we continue to support and develop the Shadow tactical ISTAR system and indeed are now rolling out the Mark 2 upgraded aircraft for the RAF. We’ve enhanced its capability, mission-agility and supportability in service. To ensure

that Raytheon UK looks at Space and ISR in the context of MDI, we’ve combined both elements into a single business portfolio. We will use our experience with the ARTEMIS and Fixed-Wing ISR programmes to explore how we can further support the aspirations of the MOD.

What hypersonic defence capabilities could Raytheon Technologies offer the RAF Future Force 2040?

As we look towards 2040, and the maturation of hypersonic technology, the control of the air task will become more challenging, with implications for freedom of manoeuvre for the Joint force. To meet evolving adversary capability, RTX has developed GhostEye™, Raytheon Missiles & Defense’s (RMD) new name for the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS). The first in a family of radars, it is a radar designed to defeat advanced and next-generation threats, including hypersonic weapons. RMD has separately, yet concurrently, developed GhostEye MR, a medium-range radar that maximises the capabilities of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, or NASAMS. Hypersonic capabilities require a blend of proven technology with cutting-edge developments across a variety of scientific disciplines. RTX can offer the RAF the necessary hypersonic understanding required to successfully counter these threats, evidenced by our successful collaboration and recent flight test of our scramjet-powered Hypersonic Airbreathing Weapon Concept (HAWC), a hypersonic missile for the US Air Force.

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UK Space Command UK Space Command – a joint command staffed by members of the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force, as well as the Civil Service and key members of the private commercial sector – was established on 1 April 2021. Official stand-up of the Command took place at the end of July with the formal opening of its new headquarters at High Wycombe. Mike Bryant talks to Air Vice-Marshal Paul Godfrey to reveal the benefits of the new command

A special ceremony marked the official opening of UK Space Command, with the first ‘Space Operator’ Badges presented to personnel (PHOTO: SAC RYAN MURRAY/MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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pace Command acts as the focal point for UK military Space operations, capability (developing and delivering space equipment programmes) and workforce training. At its head is Air Vice-Marshal (AVM) Paul Godfrey, who describes the new command as a “brilliant opportunity”.

“The six months since Space Command’s formation have been enormously hectic, but hugely rewarding,” AVM Godfrey remarks. He has met with as many of the UK Space community as possible, interacting closely with both the Minsitry of Defence (MOD) Space Directorate and the UK

Space Agency, an executive agency within the UK Government that is responsible for the nation’s civil space programme.

The MOD Space Directorate had mapped out how UK Space Command could act as a capability deliverer before the latter’s formation in spring 2021, and has played an important role in Space Command’s development since then. The Command’s expansion has been exponential in nature. “On 31 March there were six of us; there are now 450, including elements such as the ballistic missile early warning installation at RAF Fylingdales

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that forms part of Space Command,” explains AVM Godfrey. “We have been pushing the planning horizon out on a daily basis, from days to week, and then to months and years. There has been so much to do, but it’s been an incredible journey.”

About taking up his new post, he recalls, “I didn’t know what to expect, but from our starting point in April, we have really come together. We are still right at the beginning of the journey, but we are getting there.”

While the Space domain may now be the subject of a new command, it is certainly not a theatre with which AVM Godfrey and his colleagues in Defence are unfamiliar. Prior to taking up his latest posting, he already had many years’ experience of the importance of Space to military capability and operations, not least in terms of the value of the satellite communications (SATCOM), intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and global positioning system (GPS) data that Space-based assets supply.

Collaborative culture For AVM Godfrey, probably the biggest priority up to now has been “bringing together a new and rapidly expanding team and putting in place the right structures and processes”. And, as time has gone

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on, he has gained an ever more profound level of understanding of the complexities of Space in what has already been a “deeply interesting journey”.

The culture that AVM Godfrey has instilled in UK Space Command has focused on two priorities.

The first is based on the fact that it is very much a joint command, bringing together personnel from all three services – as well as individuals from outside the UK armed forces.

While Space Command sits organisationally within the RAF (AVM’s immediate boss is a three-star Air Marshal, and two steps up is the four-star Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston), AVM Godfrey was very keen to bring in experts from the other services. “It’s very much about the ‘joint’ nature of the command, and forging a Space culture, as UK Space Command provides a Space focal point for UK defence,” he says.

“Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do,” he adds, as Space Command seeks to benefit from the expertise not only of all three services, but also of academia and commercial enterprises involved in Space, as well as partner agencies such as the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency, and, of course, NATO allies.

‘Cosmic Girl’, a customised 747-400 aircraft, seen here with the Virgin LauncherOne rocket. The horizontal launch capability from the Spaceport in Newquay will offer the UK a reactive space capability (PHOTO: VIRGIN ORBIT)

RAF – A GLOBAL FORCE

The second crux of the culture that AVM Godfrey has sought to instill within UK Space Command is based on the fact that, as a new formation, it has something of a ‘blank canvas’ on which it can create its own future. Innovation, and the willingness to learn from partners and allies, will be key.

Core capabilities

The new UK Space Command will take control of the Skynet SATCOM capability (PHOTO: ASTRIUM)

UK Space Command provides command and control for all of the UK’s space defence capabilities, including the UK Space Operations Centre (SpOC) at RAF High Wycombe (the mission of the UK SpOC is to understand and monitor the Space domain in order to protect, defend and assure access to the UK’s on-orbit assets or dependencies); Fylingdales in Yorkshire; and various other enabling capabilities, all of which came under its remit on 1 April.

The UK’s Skynet family of military satellites, ground stations and user equipment, which provides strategic SATCOM capability to both the British armed forces and to select overseas allies, will also soon come under UK Space Command’s wing; currently owned and operated for the MOD by Airbus Defence and Space (ADS), the Skynet satellites – of which there are six at

present – occupy a geosynchronous orbit around the Earth. They are, notes AVM Godfrey, absolutely vital to UK military capability. Recent examples include the rapid evacuation of people from Kabul and the wide-ranging deployment of the UK’s new Carrier Strike Group into potentially dangerous waters.

“Airbus has done a fantastic job within the project’s PFI (private finance initiative) over the past 20 years or so,” he observes. “In future, the model is likely to be government-owned but contractoroperated, and we will slowly be replacing the existing satellites with a whole new capability.”

The first stage of that process will see the building and subsequent deployment of Skynet 6A, on which Airbus recently started ‘cutting metal’. Skynet is currently overseen by UK Strategic Command, but responsibility for Skynet 6A and the Skynet satellite nexus generally will pass to UK Space Command over the course of the coming year.

When it comes to launch capability, the UK is making great strides and, in this role, Space Command complements the UK Space Agency, which has the lead in this area. The latter is supporting the construction of a vertical launch

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spaceport in Sutherland in Scotland, while the horizontal launch capability offered by Virgin Orbit‘s B747 Cosmic Girl platform, with its underwing LauncherOne rocket, is to be based out of the UK Spaceport site at Newquay Airport in Cornwall.

Horizontal launch will offer a whole new “reactive capability”, AVM Godfrey points out, giving the UK an ability to react to threats or challenges much more quickly. The RAF has a serving pilot, Flight Lieutenant Mathew Stannard, embedded in the Virgin Orbit programme, serving as pilot and captain of the B747 platform from which the rocket containing a small satellite payload can be launched.

UK Space Command will develop its capability through judicious selection of ‘own, collaborate and access’ options from the private sector, AVM Godfrey explains. Thus, it will essentially own some assets, collaborate with partners on others, and access the capabilities of others as the situation best represents.

While collaboration between all three services, UK Space Command and civilian space agencies – as well as with relevant academic bodies and commercial enterprises, such as Virgin – is so significant, also of vital importance is the contribution that UK Space Command will make to international coalition efforts to monitor and protect Space assets on a 24/7 basis.

The UK became the United States’ first partner in the Olympic Defender programme in 2019. UK

UK Space Command provides command and control for all of the country’s space defence capabilities, including the UK Space Operations Centre (PHOTO: MOD/ CROWNCOPYRIGHT)

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Space Command will take command of the UK’s participation in that US-led cooperative effort, which AVM Godfrey describes as a ‘coalition of the willing’ with shared interests in the Space domain that work together both to deter threats and to reduce the spread of space debris.

Learning from each other He believes that being the first to join the US-led Olympic Defender programme was “an exciting move”, and that working together with partners through an international coalition such as this allows the different partners not only to bring their own assets, capabilities and specialisms to the table, but also to learn from each other, combine training opportunities and share their experiences.

UK Space Command will support the UK’s ongoing commitment to the Combined Space Operations (CSpO) initiative, which incorporates the Five Eyes nations alongside France and Germany. The CSpO seeks to improve cooperation, coordination and interoperability opportunities in Space, its primary focus being to ensure a ‘safe, secure and stable Space domain’.

The SpOC will play an important role in NATO’s combined efforts towards Space, while UK Space Command will also have a standing representative at the new NATO Space Centre in Ramstein, Germany.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Secure, resilient communications In a data-driven, hyperconnected world, the integrity and trust of data is paramount. The RAF can utilise defence industry and commercial partners with access to bleeding-edge cyber tools, data analytics engines, zero trust and variable trust architectures, as well as volumes of diverse threat intelligence to assist in accurately contextualising threats to better inform operational decisions and assure the integrity of its asymmetric capability.

John Reeves Managing Director, Viasat UK

How can industry support the RAF 2040 vision?

For the RAF to realise its Future Force 2040 vision to achieve a global asymmetric information advantage, it will need to first establish a resilient, multi-layered network architecture that enables crewed and uncrewed platforms, vast arrays of multi-domain sensors, and personnel to remain persistently connected in any operational environment.

This hyperconnected future will require a close partnership with the RAF and its defence industry and commercial partners. The utilisation of blended communications and data analytics architectures – comprised of both government purpose-built systems and innovative, cost-effective commercial systems – will allow the RAF to fully modernise its approach to tackling global defence, space and national security objectives.

While the proper execution of this resilient network strategy is essential to achieving desired mission outcomes, the ever-increasing cyber threat from nation-state and criminal actors represents a severe menace to the accomplishment of the RAF’s objective.

How can Viasat’s network architectures and expertise help meet UK Defence needs?

There is a growing need for a global highcapacity trusted infrastructure that uses a resilient architecture. This is precisely what we are building at Viasat, as it is a foundational capability for enabling the UK’s Multi-Domain Integration (MDI) construct.

It is not just Viasat satellites or any single company’s communications network – it’s about a connected ecosystem and the ability to network various transport paths, from satellite communications (SATCOM), to LTE and 5G, to terrestrial, to mobile ad hoc networks (MANET), to tactical data links. The key is to create resilient, secure and seamless architectures that deliver desired mission outcomes.

To achieve this, the RAF, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and others need to focus on the network management capabilities required to bring this comprehensive, ground-tospace ecosystem together. Building this environment requires strong networking expertise and an understanding of how to stitch traditionally stove-piped systems together. The ability to create and assure interoperability among disparate and complex networks and systems is a fundamental piece of this challenge.

From a Viasat UK-specific perspective, we are committed to working in partnership with the UK Government

to meet current and emerging global networking and information assurance challenges. In fact, Viasat is establishing its own Network Operations Centre and Cyber Security Operations Centre in the UK to better meet the sovereign UK data needs, both today and in the future, as well as support the MOD against increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks.

The facility itself will create new roles for more than 75 highly skilled network, analysis and cybersecurity operators, and illustrates our commitment to growing our presence and capabilities in the UK.

How does Viasat use data to ensure the security and resiliency of its network?

At Viasat, we acquire threat intelligence from industry leaders, but what makes us unique is we are a global internet service provider, so we have access to a broad cross-section of data that most cyber-focused organisations simply don’t see. This helps us detect threats as they emerge around the global network from a variety of different device types and use cases. Moreover, we can see those threats in real time using the advanced data analytics systems and unique models we have developed, based on decades of experience protecting commercial networks and working with global defence customers to secure sensitive information.

So, while we use best-of-breed tools from the commercial sector, the ability to leverage our own network to create novel threat intelligence is invaluable for customers. This combination of commercial and in-house capability enables us to draw conclusions about threats and malicious activity that others are unable to. We are also able to use bespoke behavioural analytics to support automated alerts and predict the nature of these threats to mitigate against nation-state threats and other criminal cyber activity.

www.viasat.com

STRATEGIC INDUSTRY PARTNER PERSPECTIVE

DE&S – helping to enable the RAF’s Future Force 2040 vision Sir Simon Bollom, CEO of the UK’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation, explains how technology, capabilities and concepts will have radically changed by 2040, and how DE&S must adapt to accommodate the new environment

DE&S has always prided itself on delivering the equipment and support that enables the RAF to meet its operational commitments at home and across the globe.

In addition to facilitating the demands of today’s operations, we also focus considerable effort on future needs and enabling the RAF’s 2040 vision.

By 2040, we will probably have celebrated the last flight of the venerable Typhoon. By then FCAS, in whatever form it takes, should be fully capable on operations and working alongside the F-35.

Much of our ISR will be delivered through a combination of spacebased and unmanned systems.

If computing power continues to align with ‘Moores Law’ and doubles every two years, we can expect our computation systems to be running nearly a 1,000 times faster than today, with all that means for AI, autonomy, synthetics and rapid data processing. Machines will probably be able to outmatch humans in almost every department.

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The delivery of military edge is increasingly vested in the systems and sensors, as opposed to the platform.

The trend may well become a move away from the complex platforms of today towards greater simplicity, with the emphasis being on systems with a core baseline architecture that can be built on and developed at speed to meet new threats and requirements.

Open systems are a key enabler and we will have to find the keys that turn this from concept into reality. This is not simply a technical challenge, but will require the right commercial models that incentivise current providers, as well as new entrants, to join in a collaboration that offers both

and sparing strategies. We need to grapple with these technologies and invest through our new programmes – FCAS and our weapons programme probably providing the best opportunities in this space.

DE&S 2025 Strategy The brief picture above clearly requires different thinking, and the DE&S 2025 strategy is a step on the way to being able to exploit these advances, engage with our industrial partners and meet the future demands of the military customers. We need more digital skills and systems capability to engage with and shape the future.

Complex, software-intensive systems

“We will continue to focus effort, creativity and innovation at every step of the RAF’s journey” profitability and protection of their IP (intellectual property). We need to create a win/win with Industry.

The benefits of ‘additive manufacturing’ (3D printing) are only just beginning to be realised.

In concept and development work, ‘additive’ offers the opportunity to create complex physical shapes straight from a digital model, and can make rapid prototyping an order of magnitude quicker. On the logistics side, the ability to produce parts ‘to pattern’ from a digital catalogue will have a huge impact on stockpiles

Future Force 2040

demand a specific skill set that will be in increasingly high demand, and we will need to be able to compete in the marketplace with a compelling offer to attract and retain talent.

Defence needs to get better at harnessing innovation, and I see our new Future Capability Group (FCG) and our Integrated Battlespace Operating Centre (IBOC) to be the point of the spear in this area across Defence. Here, we will be looking for more effective engagement with the Services’ ‘rapid capability offices’ (RCOs) and Defence Science and

STRATEGIC INDUSTRY PARTNER PERSPECTIVE

Typhoon pilots are expected to be the first to benefit from Gladiator synthetic training (PHOTO: SAC TOM CANN RAF/MOD/CROWN COPYRIGHT)

Technology (DST) to enable faster pull-through of ideas and technology into workable and enduring solutions.

We have also just formed our Catalyst team within the Air Domain to work as ‘one team’ with the RAF and other customers across Defence on rapid acquisition and innovation.

The immediate focus of the Catalyst team will be on four important areas: – supporting, developing and delivering the Future Combat Air Programme (FCAP), which succeeds our current fast jet capabilities; – working with partners in Air Command’s RCO to accelerate and mature ideas from concept into fieldable solutions; – continuing to develop important enablers of future solutions, such as the Pyramid modular software architecture; – delivering strategic analysis and a ‘think-tank’ capability that has impact at the highest levels of Defence.

Each of our Domains has a similar approach, and it will be for the FCG to look for the common threads and to ensure that our efforts across Defence are additive and not duplicative.

Effective support solutions are vital to the front line and we will continue to build on the partnerships with the front line and Industry to maximise reliability and availability and to reduce cost. The TyTAN model for Typhoon has been a game-changer; we will continue to build on this and deploy the processes, thinking and behaviours across the capability area that have been successful to date.

Gladiator and UKMFTS synthetic training Our synthetic training provision continues to evolve, and we expect to field the cutting-edge Gladiator this year. This utilises simulation technology inspired by online gaming to connect aircrew in multiple platforms and in different locations, allowing them to train collectively for

real-world operations by experiencing the same battlefield environment and threats simultaneously.

We are also delivering more synthetic training solutions for the UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS). Such solutions are not only more affordable (and often more effective) than flying aircraft, they also help the Ministry of Defence hit ‘Net Zero’ targets, which the RAF is committed to doing by 2040.

We will continue to focus effort, creativity and innovation at every step of the RAF’s journey toward its 2040 vision and beyond. At the heart of this, we have committed, skilled and professional people with a terrific sense of purpose and service that I know will do everything possible to bring the RAF’s vision to life.

Individual subject-matter excellence and collaborative endeavour as teams, harnessing the benefits of modern hybrid working, will be core to our delivery in support of the RAF’s mission and vision for the future.

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Cyber resilience – a critical enabler for Future Force 2040 Wing Commander Paul Withers from the RAF Air and Space Warfare Centre outlines the need for accepting risk in the cybersphere, but mitigating that risk through systemic and sustained training

Plans for a ‘day without space’ are often debated, but a day without cyberspace would be just as debilitating (IMAGE: SOLAR SEVEN/ SHUTTERSTOCK)

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he path towards Future Force 2040 is undoubtedly digitally enabled and datadriven. Consequently, our future platforms, and the broader systems they sit within, are inextricably linked with cyberspace. Despite the cycles of hyperbole regarding the risk of a ‘cyber war’, or a ‘cyber Pearl Harbor’, so prevalent through more than a decade of debate, the reality of threats in cyberspace is much more persistent

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Future Force 2040

and insidious. A lack of resilience in cyberspace will blunt the competitive edge of air and space power.

Absolute cyber resilience is neither affordable nor practically achievable; like most areas of military operations, defeating the adversary includes a degree of risk management. If we view risk as a product of threat, likelihood and impact, our mitigation starts with a detailed understanding of threats and our own vulnerabilities. In the air domain, threats manifest

RAF – A GLOBAL FORCE

themselves from near-peer adversaries with advanced fighter aircraft, through to an insurgent with small arms, or even environmental threats such as adverse weather. Capabilities, coupled with tactics, techniques and procedures are adapted to be commensurate with the threat, reducing the likelihood and adverse impact on our operations. Similarly, in cyberspace, threats range from highly sophisticated nation-state actors to criminal actors who aim to get lucky with techniques that are often untargeted. Much of cyber defence is based upon employing a wide range of measures aimed at reducing the likelihood of an attack. Where we should perhaps apply a greater degree of focus is in reducing the impact of an attack, when our defences are inevitably breached.

Ensuring secure and resilient systems We should consider how we can operate in the absence of some of our digital systems and where we should focus our finite resources to ensure that air and space power can ‘fight through’ contested cyberspace. This process starts with a sophisticated understanding of our own ‘cyber terrain’ and is followed by routinely getting accustomed to working within the constraints of contested cyberspace and the associated electromagnetic spectrum. The challenges of a ‘day without space’, particularly the degradation of space-based positioning, navigation and timing are often debated; a day without the assured use of cyberspace attracts far less attention.

As we try to gain advantage from the increased use of digital systems and promote the opportunities afforded by the rapid development of software code, we must put commensurate effort into ensuring our systems are both secure and resilient.

Our future platforms and systems must have security and resilience designed-in from the start and throughout their life cycles. Considering cyber resilience as a ‘bolt-on’ activity is not only expensive, it can also potentially leave gaps in our defences.

designed with the human in mind. The human factors element of engaging with digital systems needs to address a broader information environment challenge, that of addressing the resilience of people.

This is fundamentally a challenge of improving our ability to critically analyse the flood of information we receive, often under significant cognitive strain and

Persistent rumours of a ‘cyber Pearl Harbor’ are somewhat exaggerated – the cyber threat is however persistent and insidious (PHOTO: EVERETT HISTORICAL/ SHUTTERSTOCK)

“We should consider how we can operate in the absence of some of our digital systems”

The human dimension Modern western militaries have always believed in strength through technology, that investing in technologically advanced weapons will provide a combat advantage over their adversaries. Putting our faith in technological solutions to cyber attack overlooks the fact that most cyber attacks have a human dimension, with some analyses suggesting this may be in as many as 95% of cases. The most robust and sophisticated cyber defence can be overcome by an attacker if a trusted user inadvertently lets the attacker in. However, it is not satisfactory to simply ‘blame the users’ and respond with awareness campaigns and often ineffective online training courses. Rather, systems and processes must be

pressure, and make the right choices to ensure that the attacker cannot gain a foothold in our systems.

For the Future Force of 2040 to reap the benefits of technological advances, particularly those derived from artificial intelligence and the greater use of autonomy, we need to be resilient in cyberspace. Operating in contested cyberspace needs to become second nature to air and space operators; to do this we should exploit both live and simulated multidomain training opportunities to practice adversary cyber activities imposing costs on air and space operations. This will help ensure that cyberspace does not become the ‘soft underbelly’ of our combat capabilities.

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Delivering sustainable and affordable solutions With what existing aircraft and services does Embraer support the RAF? In 2017, Embraer delivered the first Phenom 100 Executive Jet to Affinity Flight Training Services. The contract with Affinity comprised of an order for five Phenom 100s and ongoing support services. The delivery of the fifth aircraft occurred in January 2018, and the fleet continues to be operated

by Affinity from RAF Cranwell.

Jackson Schneider President and CEO, Embraer Defense & Security

How would you describe Embraer’s relationship with the RAF? The RAF has been using Embraer aircraft to train pilots for nearly 35 years. This long association between generations of RAF pilots and Embraer began in 1985, when the RAF selected the EMB-312 for pilot training. Shorts Brothers in Northern Ireland built approximately 130 Shorts Tucanos, a modified version of the EMB-312, under license from Embraer.

The RAF received the first delivery of aircraft in June 1987, and its final retirement from service occurred in 2019. The pilot training relationship continues with the Phenom 100 Executive Jet, which is currently used to deliver multi-engine pilot training as part of the UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS) programme.

embraer.com/global/en

How relevant are Embraer’s current aircraft to 21st-century operations?

Embraer continues to excel at designing and manufacturing some of the world’s most advanced civil and military aircraft.

Today, the C-390 has redefined the future of strategic-tactical multi-mission airlift and air-to-air refuelling. It has been in service with the Brazilian Air Force since 2019 and has already been selected by two NATO Air Forces. It has demonstrated its impressive reliability and capability in military support operations, joint exercises with the USAF, and in support of humanitarian missions in the Lebanon and Haiti.

Embraer’s Praetor and Phenom Executive Jets offer exceptional classleading runway, range and capacity performance. They continue to support Government transportation and special-mission operations in a variety of ISR and other roles.

The A-29 Super Tucano is the aircraft of choice for more than 15 air forces for the delivery of advanced training and

ISR operations. However, it really excels in close air support missions, especially in support of endemic and enduring counter-insurgency operations, where the combination of its low operating costs, rugged performance and 21stcentury mission systems delivers highly cost-effective and relevant air power.

What’s next for Embraer?

At Embraer, over 4,000 employees are committed to research and development. The company’s focus is on adapting techniques, technology and materials to deliver sustainable and affordable solutions to meet the world’s aviation challenges.

Embraer’s goal is to decarbonise our direct and indirect operations, focusing on carbon reduction and efficiency. Our priority is to join with strategic partners and invest in R&D for solutions such as electrification and sustainable aviation innovations.

This includes the creation of EVE, a ground-breaking Urban Air Mobility company, to deliver a safe, accessible and green air mobility ecosystem.

Embraer is collaborating with multiple global partners to deliver this 100% eVTOL solution by 2026.

Embraer is also working with the Brazilian Air Force on the application of hybrid electric-turboprop engine technologies to create a sustainable Short Take-Off Utility Transport (STOUT) aircraft. This aircraft will carry up to 30 personnel or three tonnes of cargo and open up access to places with poor airfield infrastructure.

RAF – A GLOBAL FORCE

Aircrew training developments Group Captain Andy Turk, Station Commander of RAF Valley, home of No 4 Flying Training School, offers an insight into how a blend of virtual- and mixedreality synthetic training concepts, together with live training sorties, is evolving as the most effective and cost-efficient concept for the Next Generation Air Force

T

he past 12 months has been exciting for RAF Valley as the training programmes of Texan and Hawk align and adjust to bolster training quality through innovation and technology.

Trainee pilots are embracing 21st-century ways to complement and augment their training as RAF Valley seeks the optimum blend of live and synthetic technologies, ultimately to provide a world-class fighter pilot ready for the challenges of the front line.

This progress is just the beginning in an exciting new stage of flying training and rapid developments in technology, such as those in the

gaming market, and will further help to improve the quality of training, while reducing the cost of further synthetic training devices for all fast-jet trainee pilots.

With the operational debut of F-35B Lightning, capability enhancements of Typhoon and a further development phase for the Tempest Future Combat Air System, the flying training system has been required to adapt and modernise significantly to best train the future commanders of our Next Generation Air Force.

These requirements, primarily due to the increasing complexity of the battlespace and the enhanced capabilities of platforms and systems, are also

Future Force 2040

The Hawk T2 brings students up to operational fast jet standard with its glass cockpit and comprehensive avionics suite.

(PHOTO: MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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existing Texan FTD. This allowed a detailed analysis of how different trainees learned new disciplines, dependant on the device utilised with the results fed back into Central Flying School. Currently, updates are under way to the in-service FTD with the integration of VR into cockpit trainers, with force-feedback and virtual instructor capabilities.

Hawk T2

The CAE Sprint VR trainer enables integrated tuition at the student’s own pace (PHOTO: MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

compounded by the need for the RAF to streamline its operations in order to better utilise its resources.

Consolidation of Fast Jet flying training at RAF Valley has allowed a seamless transition between Basic Flying Training (BFT) and Advanced Jet Training (AJT) phases, shifting the focus towards a blended solution that provides a better-prepared pilot arriving at the front line. In addition, recent advances in the quality of synthetic training devices, specifically Virtual and Mixed Reality (VR/MR), have provided new and exciting possibilities for the flying training pipeline.

Texan T1 Following the stand-up of 72(F) Squadron with the glass-cockpit Texan T1, alongside XXV(F) and IV(AC) Squadrons at RAF Valley, fast-jet training has been co-located, allowing greater integration and a seamless transition between BFT and AJT. The modern BFT output is a far more relevant output standard for Hawk T2, with opportunities to download elements of the AJT syllabus in the future. This has already been realised in the initial BFT syllabus, with the introduction of basic air-ground weaponry, surface-air threats and tactical formation.

The live/synthetic mix reflects a modern training system, incorporating new technologies at pace.

A synthetic CAE Sprint VR device is being used to explore the utility of an off-the-shelf product in comparison to the more traditional in-service Flight Training Device (FTD) simulator. A recent trial compared two groups of ab initio trainees assigned to either the Sprint VR device or the

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The AJT programme benefited from early use of VR to enhance courseware, primarily through a variety of demo scenarios generated for many phases of the AJT syllabus. In particular, this focused on Basic Fighter Manoeuvres and Air Combat Manoeuvres, both completely new disciplines for ab initio trainee pilots and areas traditionally difficult for trainees to develop an early mental model. The scenarios, narrated by instructors, can be replayed and watched until the trainee is comfortable with where to look during a variety of presentations with both ‘hostile’ and ‘friendly’ aircraft present. These scenarios enhance classroom briefs and improve the likelihood of a successful live instructional sortie.

The next steps (in early 2022) for AJT are to utilise the VR lessons learnt on BFT and take them to the next level. MR will be incorporated into a cockpit trainer enhanced by linked systems and virtual instructors, to allow the student to train in the virtual environment while looking into a ‘real’ cockpit to integrate with the cockpit switches and avionics.

Astra Astra funding has allowed experimentation to continue in order to get a grasp of the wider opportunities available. The two additional Texan VR rigs have used civilian gaming software to successfully implement localised weather and computer-generated traffic entities, as well as ATC procedures/comms – all of which were yet to be brought into the relatively sterile conditions in the formal VR/MR environments. The next stage of development for this VR experience will include enhanced demo/practice sorties with instructor narration. AI software will also be implemented to provide greater objective performance feedback.

Astra funding also permitted the purchase of two additional CAE Sprint VR devices (on top of the pair acquired for the Texan) for an AJT feasibility trial to best understand where the live syllabus can be transferred. In combination with the CFS report from the Texan trial, integration and development of these VR/MR systems delivers a better-prepared trainee in the air and, potentially, enables a different blend of live and synthetic training, ultimately delivering an overall output standard that is better aligned to Lightning and Typhoon in the future.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Supporting the RAF and Astra

Malcolm Crayford OBE

Paul Hearn

Senior Military Air Advisor, Thales UK

Air Campaign Director, Thales UK

How can Thales help the RAF deliver the Next Generation Royal Air Force?

digital trust and resilience will be key if the RAF is to fully achieve multidomain integration. While it is difficult to predict the threat out to 2040, it is up to Thales and our industry partners to help the RAF exploit the potential of new digital identity technologies to ensure integrated advantage.

PH: Even though we might not be able to predict precise threat and technology trends, the ability to authenticate and know that you have trust in the system of systems is critical. Having trust at the heart of everything is critical for connected systems to be able to talk to each other, as is the ability to know that authorised systems are linking to other authorised systems. Thales uses that concept to develop new levels of digital resilience into our customers’ solutions.

MC: Astra is the RAF’s journey to the Next Generation Royal Air Force – with information and digital technology being placed at the heart of the RAF’s transformation, Thales is well placed to support the RAF on their journey.

PH: Thales is helping the RAF understand what the Next Generation Royal Air Force may look like by exploring the implications of innovations like autonomy, advanced analytics and AI-driven synthetics. We are also helping them to explore what building blocks will be required to unlock that future. A good example of this can be found in the area of digital identity and how that can be used to build digital trust and trusted communities to unlock a more flexible and agile collaborative operating model for the RAF that is fit for the future.

A fair amount of our digital innovation has its roots in the civil arena, such as the banking sector, and this read-across could deliver serious advantage to Astra.

How can Thales enhance the RAF’s digital trust and resilience?

MC: The RAF increasingly operates in a multi-domain environment; however,

How will training solutions need to change?

PH: The building blocks of synthetics, while originating in our training systems of today, will become much more vital in the end-to-end lifecycle of the RAF’s capabilities – from concept development to certification to training and into operational capability. We are looking at how the tools, data flows and new

approaches to generating insight (via advanced analytics, AI and machine learning) can be used to break open these traditionally siloed applications and dramatically reduce the time and effort required to concept, design, build and ultimately deliver new capabilities rapidly into the hands of our warfighters.

Thales will support the RAF and the other Armed Forces to train its people faster and better with tailored individual training, and collectively to master multi-domain operations in the future.

What sort of transformation will be required in terms of people and equipment?

MC: The Chief of the Air Staff describes the RAF “as the 20th Century’s original tech start-up”. The Astra journey is as much cultural as technical; the challenge is to overcome institutional inertia and legacy structures and redefine the RAF’s individual and collective entrepreneurial skills. How the RAF attract, recruit, train and sustain their highly skilled and diverse workforce will be key, and this will require far more integrated and collaborative working arrangements with Industry, moving the Whole Force into a true partnership model.

PH: Learning how to adapt at pace, commercially and operationally, to meet the unpredictable threats of the future will also be key. We will need to move from a traditional midlife upgrade approach to a more continuously upgradeable software-defined capability that can react rapidly. Capability uplifts will become more frequent and less visible to adversaries, particularly as the RAF engages in continuous operations below the threshold. The cultural change will be required across the whole enterprise, from the smallest of suppliers right the way through to those on the front line, if we are to fully embrace the extraordinary rate of technological change.

www.thalesgroup.com/uk

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Developing a weapon systems capability for Tempest the threat changes – as the systems replan and reconfigure themselves – all that information is processed and presented back to an operator in a human-understandable form, enabling them to make the best decision possible.

What is MBDA’s ‘digital first’ approach?

Mike Mew Senior Responsible Owner for Tempest, MBDA

Can you describe MBDA’s role as ‘Effects Domain’ lead in the Tempest programme?

As ‘Effects Domain’ lead, MBDA is helping Team Tempest develop systems to deliver different weapon effects (both kinetic and non-kinetic) to make sure they provide the best offensive and defensive capabilities against a very challenging threat. A Future Combat Air System (FCAS) will have highly dynamic systems and multiple nodes – platforms, adjuncts and weapons – operating at scale and reconfiguring potentially at the speed of light.

To enable that, MBDA is investing in a range of technologies. As well as the classic propulsive, sensing and energetic subsystems, we are exploiting artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning so that we can start to train the weapons to react with a degree of automation.

MBDA is helping put a decentralised C2 infrastructure for effect delivery around all of the elements, so that as

www.mbda-systems.com

MBDA has used simulation and modelling to develop weapons for many years, and our ‘digital first’ approach is really taking that to the next level. We are not just using the digital representations of our own system for our own purposes, but exchanging those models with our supply chain and with our partners in the Combat Air sector. Rather than building a digital representation and then creating a paper description of that, we build the model and share it with our partners.

Then, we build live integrated digital twins of the overall combat air system and use that as our engineering baseline.

Which current and future weapon systems are you incorporating into the Tempest design?

The sorts of things we are looking at for Tempest are different ways of providing effects; very high-speed operations, very low observability, swarming and saturation and, of course, directed energy.

As well as the next-generation concepts, we have a range of really advanced weapons for air dominance and strike – ASRAAM, Meteor, Brimstone, SPEAR3, SPEAR-EW and Storm Shadow (to be replaced by the Future Cruise/ Anti-Ship Weapon – FC/ASW). We want to continuously develop them to ensure

they stay relevant. We want to leverage the inherent capability in the weapons themselves – after all, each weapon is an airframe and a node in the combat air system in its own right. Therefore, MBDA is assessing how to introduce spiral upgrades to those systems, primarily through software enhancements, but also through things like data linking and selected hardware upgrades.

As an example of how we can enhance the capability of current systems, imagine taking SPEAR and SPEAR EW, which are already networked to their launch platform via Link 16 and moving to the next level of integration to deliver true swarming behaviour. With weaponto-weapon communication, AI and cooperation algorithms to respond to target behaviour and to govern the interactions and reconfiguration, the Tempest operator could oversee extremely complex offensive and defensive patterns at large scale, so they can operate as a swarm with other weapons such as Storm Shadow or FC/ASW, or, indeed, team up with the other elements of Tempest.

What other aspects of the Tempest design is MBDA contributing to?

Perhaps the most significant goal that we are trying to achieve with our industry partners and the customer is to make sure we reduce the cost and complexity of weapon integration.

Wouldn’t it be great if, in the future, you could integrate an updated weapon into the combat air system as simply as plugging in a USB stick into a computer?

Then we will have had a real win.

DEVELOPING CAPABILITIES

Team Tempest The programme to develop the Tempest combat aircraft, which is scheduled to replace the Eurofighter Typhoon from the mid-2030s, has taken a significant step forward with the addition of Sweden and Italy to the team. Alan Dron asks Air Commodore Jez Holmes what each of the nations brings to the party

The addition of Sweden and Italy to the Tempest team brings multiple benefits in terms of skill sets and export markets (IMAGE: BAE SYSTEMS)

“W

e bring different skill sets,” says Air Commodore (Air Cdre) Jez Holmes, head of the RAF’s Rapid Capabilities Office and programme director for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) Technology Initiative (TI).

“Sweden is a strong combat aircraft nation; Saab has been around for many years, and what they demonstrated recently with the Gripen NG and E is that they know how to harness mission

systems. We also have those skill sets, but they have different lessons to bring.” Looking at the Swedish and UK defence industries, he adds: “Of course there’s some overlap, but there are specific skill sets that we don’t have, or that they don’t have.”

Italy also has a strong defence industrial sector, including considerable skills in the avionics field, as well as having been involved in significant technology projects, such as the Neuron UAV. “The other thing they have is a common air force mix to the UK, as they also fly Typhoon.”

The two additional European nations also strengthen Tempest’s future export potential, as there are areas of the world in which Sweden and Italy have previous export experience, but where the UK tends not to operate.

The FCAS portfolio contains two programmes – the FCAS TI to generate the technologies, skills and prototyping; and an acquisition programme that looks at how it delivers capability. “From my perspective on the first of those, my eyes are still on the 2035-40 period for the transition from Typhoon to Tempest,” says Holmes. That may seem a long way into the future, he admits, but not in the context of developing complex combat air systems.

One important facet of the Tempest programme will be rapid prototyping. Traditionally, major military projects have had front-loaded analysis, before

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DEVELOPING CAPABILITIES

Additive manufacturing (3D printing) of components is an area that will undoubtedly result in significant cost savings for Tempest (PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK)

going into the concept phase to generate solutions and technologies. “The challenge with that is when you actually get to field the capability 20 years later, the world has moved on and requirements have changed.

“How do we tackle that issue? Let’s not design requirements too precisely. Let’s talk about outcomes: What are we trying to achieve?” Some of the necessary future technologies might not yet be visible.

“So, how do we grow an organisation that’s able to react to that in a positive, rather than a negative way – which would be changing requirements halfway through, with cost and time implications?”

Making components swiftly One possible answer is to design aspects of the aircraft so that they “can be plugged together very quickly and easily”. For example, the swiftly growing field of additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing) will allow components to be made far more quickly than by traditional methods – components can be developed in one to two months, rather than taking two years.

Backing this up are the latest digital design methods, by which design changes can be passed around the entire organisation in real time. There are already more than 300 companies and academic bodies involved in Tempest, so the ability to

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connect them all immediately to the latest design changes is both important and attractive.

This raises obvious questions of cybersecurity, but Holmes is confident that that this can be handled. It will be a question of adopting appropriate levels of security for the most sensitive aspects of the design. “The structure of the undercarriage is not going to be a classified tool, frankly, so I don’t have a problem with that part. Protect what you need to protect without having too much friction across the whole enterprise,” he explains.

In the past, succeeding generations of military aircraft have seen exponential leaps in costs.

Tempest will not be cheap, but Holmes believes that factors such as digital design and rapid prototyping will help to moderate the rate of increase.

“I like to talk about value for money. The money is the input and the value is the output,” he says. That value could take the form of industry workloads and prosperity. Much of the cost of any military project lies in the people involved and their design skills: “If you’re able to design, build and test much quicker, that starts to bring down some of that cost.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson viewed the Tempest concept aircraft during a visit to the BAE Systems facility at Warton Aerodrome in Lancashire (PHOTO: ANDREW PARSONS/MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Pride in protection: the technology behind coming home safe

Norman Bone Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Leonardo UK Drawing on a heritage in platform protection that stretches back to the Vulcan, the scientists and engineers at our Luton and Edinburgh sites take great pride in providing the defensive aids equipment for the majority of the UK’s airborne fleet. As we head towards Future Force 2040, Leonardo UK is also at the heart of Tempest, in our role as domain leader for the integrated sensing and non-kinetic effects (ISANKE) and integrated communications for the future combat air system. This incredibly exciting project will deliver a generational change in protection capabilities as part of a wider information superiority system.

In the delivery of all of these capabilities, we always look to work as closely as possible with the people who are actually going to be using them, conscious that they are relying on our equipment to complete their missions

and come home safe. Over the years, that close working relationship has bred trust and transparency, the fundamentals of a strong partnership. This, in turn, has established the foundations for the next step we are taking together: a strategic partnering arrangement (SPA) for platform protection.

In the spirit of the recently published Defence and Security Industrial Strategy, this SPA recognises the expertise that Leonardo UK holds as a strategic onshore capability and lays out a new, shared approach to future capability development.

This is a great model for industry, because it gives us the confidence to direct investment in world-first technologies that the RAF needs.

Previously, such investment has led to the BriteCloud expendable active decoy,

Defence because it provides more longterm control over the new capabilities being developed by industry, ensuring they are exactly what is required.

How we develop these capabilities is just as important. At Leonardo, we are investing substantially into our facilities and the digital technologies, such as machine learning, that will underpin future work at our UK sites. The job of the engineer will look remarkably different in just a few years’ time, with the individual at the heart of a connected engineering and manufacturing infrastructure. The goal is to allow our people to spend more of their time on higher-value activities, giving them the space to be more innovative.

In the future, as threats become even more complex and the requirement

“Our investment today in digital technologies... will deliver true information-age capabilities” and we’re currently partnering to develop the SPEAR Electronic Warfare variant and the ECRS Mk2 radar for the Typhoon, which will be the most capable radar ever deployed when it goes into service after 2025. Moreover, our investment today in digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, will deliver true information-age capabilities in the future.

The SPA approach is also a great model for the RAF and Ministry of

for information superiority demands completely integrated multi-domain forces, this combination of strategic partnerships and digital infrastructure will allow us to correctly plan investment and develop capabilities that work seamlessly as part of an integrated whole. As our forces become more integrated, industry and our customers will be doing the same.

All in service of that overarching goal: to bring those in harm’s way home safe.

uk.leonardocompany.com

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Training the future warfighter our world now is how we link training effects across domains in the future.

ACMI – the vital link

Paul Armstrong Chief Executive Officer, Draken Europe Prepare to prevail. These words underpin all we do at Draken Europe, but what do they mean to us? Simply, it is our company’s acknowledgement that mission success doesn’t happen by chance. Future warfighter training and test and evaluation of innovative platforms in virtual, automated and physical spheres demands experience, rigour and focus of the kind that can only be delivered by a company as unique as ours.

Draken Europe has considerable experience of the marriage of training and technology. To us, the live/ synthetic debate is nothing new.

We’ve delivered synthetic training for years under our previous guise as Cobham Aviation Services. Numerous front-line personnel throughout NATO can attest for themselves just how capable we are at injecting synthetic and constructive threats into the live training environment. We do that in a cost-effective and operationally and environmentally efficient manner. There’s nothing new in that and we’re proud of the role we play – what is new to

www.draken.aero

The vital link to the wide-area, realtime and internationally collective LVC (live, virtual and constructive) training exercises of the future is the ACMI system.

ACMI is the ‘string’ that connects us to multiple ground, air and sea options, and we are well ahead of the curve for its integration. The nature of our fleet means that we can adopt ACMI faster than future platforms can. With our partners at Collins Aerospace, we are already integrating aircraft-mounted JSAS pods into our ORT fleet. That capability positions us to test and develop future platforms – both manned and unmanned – as they are introduced into service.

Such R&D work can’t all be done in a virtual environment. It must be done in the live environment, too. Train on a simulator and your limit is the extent of the simulation. Test simulated learning in a live environment and you have the opportunity to develop a virtuous feedback loop that supports better simulated learning down the line.

A coalition approach Our investment in Collins ACMI technology provides a modern software-defined ACMI system that is backward compatible with legacy P5 waveform and compatible with secure new ACMI waveforms, such as P6. As coalition platforms integrate ACMI systems at higher level, we can more quickly match that facility, keeping pace with and future-proofing against the needs of the Future Force 2040.

Increasingly, the RAF will be training with multiple coalition forces, and this

demand must, inevitably, grow. As the need to support internationally collective training expands, so Draken Europe is uniquely positioned to meet that need. Security is central to this and the ACMI system gives us the capability to host full-fidelity threat and weapon simulations at the highest classification levels, including NATO, UK and US.

Manned or unmanned?

It’s the effect that matters Draken Europe is a key part of the R&D cycle that forms a proving ground for technology in an engaged environment. We operate across multiple programmes, and our fleet has the critical mass of flying hours that enables cost-effective and rapid technology development and demonstration with our coalition defence partners and contractors.

Our expertise is by no means limited to manned platforms. As Cobham Aviation Services, Draken Europe worked with our partners General Atomics for several years on Reaper – and our operations in the UAV sphere are expanding. We are proud to be one of the key industry partners helping the RAF to bring the MQ-9B Protector into service, working with other OEMS as we seek to offer the highest standard of training support, as well as operating these platforms in our own SAR and ISR roles.

The training demands of Future Force 2040 won’t see warfighters of tomorrow exclusively learning in a virtual environment, but it will see them experience a fully integrated, real-time system in which combined end-to-end testing of effects allied to data is key.

And, at Draken, we’re already prepared.

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Protector growth path In the summer of 2021, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. operated a company MQ-9B within the UK to undertake trials in UK airspace and participate in the Joint Warrior exercise. Jonny King, Vice President of GA-AS UK Ltd, tells Simon Michell how the demonstrations highlighted the prospects of this vital part of the RAF’s future inventory when it enters service as Protector RG Mk1

O A GA-ASI MQ-9B in SeaGuardian configuration in front of RAF Waddington’s control tower (PHOTO: MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

n 25 August 2021, a General Atomics (GA-ASI) MQ-9B Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), configured in its maritime SeaGuardian guise, commenced operations from RAF Waddington. The same aircraft had been in the UK three years earlier when it made a historic transatlantic crossing, culminating in a Satcom-controlled landing at Fairford for the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT).

Over the next two months, the aircraft had an extremely heavy schedule. Its first, and perhaps primary, task was to practise how to successfully

integrate into UK airspace. “This was very much about the integration into UK airspace, understanding approach and departure procedures, and how we get the platform from class G airspace into the controlled airspace so that it can be routed around the UK,” explains Jonny King, Vice President of General Atomics’ UK arm – GA-AS UK Ltd. These trials were enthusiastically supported by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the UK’s air traffic management service provider, NATS. Both organisations were keen to help GA-ASI undertake them, as they too wanted to work out how to get

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(above) The MQ-9B’s maritime sensor suite is clearly visible as the aircraft comes in to land; (above right) During its period in the UK, the MQ-9B also flew over to Leeuwarden Air Base to assist the Netherlands with its MQ-9B plans (PHOTO: MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

this type of aircraft to share the same airspace as commercial flights. According to the CAA’s Tom Gratton, “The Airspace Co-ordination Notice issued by the CAA for this series of demonstration flights in UK airspace is the largest and most meticulous we have ever produced, so that the airspace integration of SeaGuardian is at the highest level of safety.”

Over the course of the trials, a number of milestones were achieved. Of particular note was a two-day series of flights to Leeuwarden Air Base in the Netherlands, which crossed into Dutch airspace in the first week of September, as well as a point-to-point flight to relocate the aircraft from RAF Waddington to RAF Lossiemouth (home of the P-8 Poseidon) on 12 September, so that it could take part in the Joint Warrior/Dynamic Mariner Exercise. This flight not only paved the way for future Protector flights, but also for other civil and commercial RPA flights.

Maritime sensor suite Once in Lossiemouth, the MQ-9B showcased the capabilities afforded it by the extensive maritime sensor suite that it was carrying. “The SeaGuardian suite that we fitted for the exercise included AIS, GA-ASI’s Lynx SAR, Raytheon’s Seaview 360 maritime radar and Leonardo’s SAGE ESM, a sonobuoy monitoring system, as well as our standard EO/IR ball in the nose,” confirms King.

These systems enabled the aircraft to contribute to the exercise in various different ways. For example, it was able to help the blue team’s understanding of what surface vessels were in the water, where they were and where they were heading. It was also used in a fleet-protection role and was able to pick out fast inshore attack craft (FIACs) from the red team before they could sneak in and attack the exercising warships. At one stage of the exercise, the MQ-9B undertook a complex multifaceted land, sea, air

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surveillance tasking, during which it provided fleet protection by keeping an eye on the marauding FIACs, while also supporting a Dutch warship as it prosecuted an amphibious helicopter assault.

Thanks to its onboard sonobuoy monitoring system, the MQ-9B also helped keep tabs on the two submarines that were also participating in the exercise.

“Although we didn’t bring our own sonobuoys, we were monitoring some that were dropped by an RAF P-8 to track an underwater target,” explains King.

“Not only were we able to relay submarine tracks between the MQ-9B and the P-8, we were also able to take control of the sonobuoys themselves.”

This sort of capability demonstration is an invaluable help to the RAF as it considers what missions and concepts of operation the MQ-9B will be able to undertake and how it can complement the P-8’s maritime capability, as well as what sort of configuration makes sense for each type of mission.

Growth path While these trials and exercises highlight just how versatile the Protector RG Mk1 will be when it enters service in a few years’ time, they also forecast other uses for the platform. The obvious taskings could be in support of other government agencies, such as the Coast Guard, Border Force and Fisheries Protection.

“There is no doubt that Protector could also be used in MACA [Military Aid to the Civil Authorities] operations,” says King. It might even have a utility in safeguarding the UK’s energy supplies by keeping an overwatch on offshore wind turbines and tidal energy generators.

The MQ-9B has also been certified for the Leonardo BriteCloud self-protection system, meaning that it could, theoretically, support non-combatant evacuation operations, like the recent Operation Pitting in Kabul. King also points out that GA-ASI has successfully demonstrated the use of Ultra’s REAP (Rosetta Echo Advanced Payloads), enabling the MQ9B to function not only as a communications relay station, but also as a communications integrator. The system can fuse different communications links and networks, such as Link 16 and 22, to enable air, naval and land-based systems to talk to each other – an invaluable tool for future multi-domain operations.

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Major General Thierry Dupont Belgian Air Component Commander and Chief of Staff of the Belgian Air Force Working with the RAF to make the MQ-9B journey a success

In 2016, the Belgian government expressed the need for two Medium Altitude Long Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) as an element of its Defence Strategic Vision for 2030, in order to improve the Intelligence capabilities of its Armed Forces. Two years later, after an in-depth market study, Belgium selected the MQ-9B manufactured by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI). The key requirements for this RPAS were an outstanding level of performance, the best opportunities for interoperability as part of EU/NATO coalitions and, finally, yet importantly, the highest level of certification to fly in non-segregated European airspace. In May 2019, the Belgian and United States’ governments signed the Letter of Offer and Acceptance regarding the Foreign Military Sale of two MQ-9B systems. Belgium will employ the MQ-9B SkyGuardian in an Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance configuration.

The Royal Air Force and the Belgian Air Force share a long and lasting history of cooperation. Since the creation of the Belgian Section of the RAF during World War II, numerous successful common initiatives have followed, including the exchange of personnel on advanced fast-jet training at RAF Valley, as well as on C-130 and, more recently, on A400M. This bears witness to the high levels of trust between the two air forces.

Bearing in mind these collaborative

successes, as well as the United Kingdom’s decision to replace its MQ-9A Reaper fleet with the MQ-9B as the lead customer for this cuttingedge RPAS, it became obvious for both air forces to develop an extensive bilateral cooperation agreement.

Thus, in August 2020, the Chief of the UK Air Staff and the Belgian Air Component Commander signed a Statement of Intent on bilateral cooperation regarding the MQ-9B Remotely Piloted Aircraft System.

The Statement of Intent will soon evolve into a Memorandum of Understanding between the United Kingdom, Belgium, Australia and the United States of America, to include specific project arrangements for collaboration opportunities, such as airworthiness and training. The first achievement of the Belgian-British collaboration is the posting of a Belgian officer within the UK MAA Certification Division in Bristol, to support the MQ-9B initial airworthiness certification.

“The Royal Air Force and the Belgian Air Force share a long and lasting history of cooperation” This document essentially lays the basis for the two nations to explore collaboration opportunities to enhance their logistics capabilities in maintaining these Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, aimed at improving their national and collective security in Europe and beyond, further subscribing NATO’s security policies.

Both countries strive to strengthen their readiness and interoperability by collaborating through exercises or, as circumstances might dictate, through coordinated operations. Mutual support in airworthiness, certification and access to airspace for this gamechanging RPAS will be key elements throughout this common journey.

As second MQ-9B customer, and considering the lack of operational experience regarding Medium Altitude Long Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, the Belgian Air Force considers its cooperation with the Royal Air Force as crucial to tackle shared challenges in introducing and employing such a state-of-the-art asset.

With less than two years to go before the first SkyGuardian will land at its home base in Florennes, the Belgian Air Force is looking forward to working closely together with our fellow British servicemen and women in the employment of this modern strategic asset.

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THE RAF ISTAR FORCE

Transforming for the future Group Captain Jim Beldon, the RAF’s ISTAR Deputy Force Commander, outlines the transformation that his organisation is currently undergoing

RAF personnel are operating with the RAAF’s E-7 Wedgetail fleet before bringing the RAF’s own aircraft into service (IMAGE: BOEING)

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he year 2021 will be looked upon as a pivotal moment in the history of the RAF’s Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) Force. It has been a year in which iconic capabilities such as the Sentinel and Sentry, as well as the less well-known, but equally significant, Islander and Defender fleet,

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were withdrawn from operational service. But 2021 has also been a year of significant renewal and investment in the Force’s future capabilities.

The Integrated Review confirmed that Sentry will be succeeded by three E-7 Wedgetail aircraft to be based at RAF Lossiemouth from late 2023, underlining the enduring importance of a sovereign airborne command, control and surveillance capability for the RAF. Interoperability with our Royal Australian Air Force partners, who are training the first cadre of RAF Wedgetail crews and instructors, is cementing our strategic relationship with Australia, while the collocation of RAF Wedgetails with their P-8A Poseidon stablemates at RAF Lossiemouth promises to generate training, engineering and support synergies.

The P-8A Poseidon is itself growing in effectiveness all the time, with final aircraft deliveries due to conclude soon, and the build-up of the second front-line formation, 201 Squadron, now well under way. Supported by the Tactical Operations Centre at RAF Lossiemouth, RAF Poseidons have integrated seamlessly with Allies on operations over the North Atlantic, ensuring that operational

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commanders have the best possible situational awareness regarding our potential adversaries’ sub-surface activities.

Preparing for Protector RG Mk 1 Both RAF Waddington and RAF Lossiemouth had a glimpse into the future in September 2021, when they were visited by a General Atomics-Air Systems Incorporated (GA-ASI) MQ-9B (SeaGuardian) remotely piloted air system (RPAS). MQ-9B is the prototype of the Protector RPAS, 16 of which will be permanently based at RAF Waddington with 13 and 31 Squadrons.

While in the UK, it conducted a series of sorties to test its integration with RAF infrastructure and domestic airspace, while participating in Exercise Joint Warrior to demonstrate its potential as a maritime radar-equipped capability. This activity is helping inform decisions on a potential expansion of the RAF Protector’s capabilities to include a maritime role, complementing Poseidon.

Protector will generate a huge leap in terms of RPAS operational capability. While today’s Reaper Force has more than earned its spurs on operations, it is nonetheless restricted to specific operating locations owing to the need to deploy and maintain a crewed launch-and-recovery element and its confinement to flight only inside segregated airspace. By contrast, Protector will be certified to fly in airspace used by civilian air traffic (just like conventionally crewed military aircraft), enabling it to support civil authorities in the UK and abroad in the

conduct of search-and-rescue missions, high-visibility event policing and humanitarian relief operations.

Owing to its vast range, endurance and the ability to take off and land without the need for a deployed launch-and-recovery element, Protector offers rapid operational flexibility, marking a revolution in capability over Reaper. Protectors could, for example, self-ferry to multiple locations more than 3,000 miles away, and recover just as seamlessly. Furthermore, enabled by UK sovereign secure communications and armed with UK designed and built weapons

GA-ASI’s MQ-9B SeaGuardian, on which the RAF’s Protector capability is based, flew a variety of sorties from RAF Waddington and RAF Lossiemouth in autumn 2021, heralding a new era for RAF RPAS operations (PHOTO: MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

“Protector offers rapid operational flexibility, marking a revolution in capability over Reaper” (Raytheon’s Paveway IV and the MBDA Brimstone), Protector will confer true operational and logistical independence to the RAF’s armed ISTAR capability.

As lead customer, the UK is also developing with GA-ASI an international RPAS Training Centre in Lincoln, which will provide operator training on the aircraft before graduates return to their home countries to finesse their operational skills – a model reminiscent of the Tri-National Tornado Training Establishment at RAF Cottesmore in the 1980s and 90s.

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2021 witnessed the operational swansong of 5 Squadron’s Sentinel aircraft, following years of invaluable service on operations in the Middle East, Africa and Afghanistan (PHOTO: MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

Despite advances in RPAS technology, they ultimately remain reliant on SATCOM coverage and other communications architecture to deliver effect.

Hence, ‘conventionally’ crewed platforms remain highly relevant to operations too. Accordingly, several of the ISTAR Force’s Shadow fleet have been modified to Mk 1+ standard at Raytheon’s Broughton facility to enable the seamless transition of the recently retired Islander and Defender Fleet’s responsibilities, a temporary arrangement which will see a GovernmentOwned Contractor-Operated venture permanently assume that role in due course, allowing Shadow to undergo a more significant upgrade to Mk 2 standard.

Supporting the CSG21 Carrier Strike Group In addition to the maritime operations routinely conducted by the Poseidon Force, Sentry and the RAF’s newly upgraded Rivet Joint aircraft played full roles in support of the UK-led Carrier Strike Group’s transit through the Mediterranean in 2021, supporting F-35B Lightning operations and contributing to NATO and anti-Daesh Coalition operations. For Sentry, which flew from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, this was its final deployment, marking the end of a phenomenal career spanning 30 years in which it had conducted countless NATO and national operations over Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq and Libya. Sentinel, too, bowed out, but not before it had completed its final operational deployment on Operation Shader

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in the Middle East, and accomplished the staggering achievement of flying its annual assignment of NATO sorties in just two months.

While the achievements and recapitalisation of its airborne capabilities capture the limelight, the ISTAR Force’s analytical brain can be found within Number 1 Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Wing, located at various sites across the UK and on deployed operations abroad.

Its flexibility in analysing data captured by RAF, NATO and US ISTAR platforms is profound, providing the UK with a unique air intelligence capability that spans the electromagnetic spectrum. From time-sensitive analysis and exploitation of imagery gathered by Typhoon multi-role fighters over Iraq and Syria, to the detailed analysis of signals intelligence and full-motion video, 1 ISR Wing is at work, 24/7, providing UK and Coalition commanders with timely, decision-quality information. Called in to cover the Kabul evacuation (Operation Pitting) in August 2021, the Wing provided essential intelligence to commanders on the ground, safeguarding the airlift operation as well as forces on the ground.

The ISTAR Force’s transformation, which will witness major investment at RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Waddington, is fully under way. While that journey continues, our flying squadrons and 1 ISR Wing will carry on generating the intelligence and overwatch necessary to provide UK and Allied commanders with the timely and accurate analysis they rightly demand.

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Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld AO DSC, Chief of Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force RAAF and RAF synergies across common platforms The last 100 years have been defined by the inseparable bond and common journey of our two remarkable air forces. The core values that underpin the RAAF and the RAF strategies are aligned. We both recognise that our people are vital to our future success and we both face the challenge of developing and introducing new capabilities, while balancing the demands of support to ongoing operations. Additionally, we recognise that the operating environment is changing, and we need to adapt. Our interoperability will be critical to future coalition operations, and success will demand the ability for our air forces to contest and win in a broad spectrum of operations in different environments.

This will require imagination and innovation to develop and maximise the synergies amongst our air forces.

Integration of fourth- and fifthgeneration Combat Air capability and associated complex weapon capabilities will act as a significant force multiplier. Effective Command and Control, ISR, EW and network integration will be key to interoperability across all warfighting functions, as will collaboration in the space and cyber domains. Development of our tactics, techniques and procedures alongside the development of our people so that they can operate comfortably in such a challenging world remains critical to future success, as does our ability to provide an effective contribution to the Joint Force, both in capability and leadership roles.

The RAAF and RAF operate a range of common fleets, such as the F-35, P-8A and the E-7A. These fleets are often supported through a global spares supply chain and limited forward spares holdings. There is the potential to rationalise this approach between our air forces. Similarly, our approaches to maintenance support offer opportunities to learn from experience and could offer direct collaboration and efficiencies in deployed locations.

In addition to the fully integrated F-35 working environment, which already exists in the Australian, Canada, UK Reprogramming Laboratory, we will continue to deepen our close collaboration concerning fourthand fifth-generation integration, and operating concepts. We will seek opportunities to interoperate through shared use of specific programme facilities, synthetic devices, intrinsic ISR and communications networks. Planned UK-Australian F-35 engagement will not only enhance relations between the UK and Australian F-35 community, but encourage the cross-pollination of best practice, tactics and procedures between both forces.

There are opportunities to combine our P-8A experience in support solutions and maximise personnel exchange programmes to develop a deeper understanding of the challenges associated with platform maintenance and airworthiness, future capabilities development, tactics and procedures.

There are also further opportunities to share cyber vulnerability studies,

infrastructure and contractor logistics support experience. Through the E-7A programme steering group/ community of interest, we can adopt a common approach to future capability development, share Contractor Logistic Support experience and seek training opportunities to support OT&E and software development.

Beyond traditional air collaboration, space presents the greatest number of opportunities due to the innovative pace of the domain. Assuring our collective access and ensuring responsible behaviour is key for our operational effectiveness. As we transform the capabilities of our Air Forces into those necessary to succeed in our second centuries, synergies in programmes like Jericho and Astra will ensure we create high-performing enterprises with disruptive innovation cultures capable of delivering tangible outcomes, with agile and potent air and space effects for our current and future forces.

The RAF and RAAF sharing several common platforms and areas of interest brings great synergy potential to allow our air forces to concentrate effort, burden share and actively share experiences. In the longer term, there are benefits in future concepts, innovation and technology development to modernise our air forces and develop next-generation warfighting capability.

Having flown alongside each other from our beginnings, we will continue this shared history forged by duty, sacrifice and mutual support in order to face and overcome the challenges ahead.

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Swarming drones Flight Lieutenant Neil Andrews, 216 Squadron Trials Officer and PhD student (Cooperative Behaviours of Unmanned Swarming Aircraft), explains why swarming drones are so important to future RAF operations. He also examines some of the challenges faced by the military in developing and utilising this new capability

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Flight Lieutenant Neil Andrews watches a Fregata drone being launched (PHOTO: RAF RAPID CAPABILITIES OFFICE/MOD/CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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he practice of swarming has long been demonstrated in nature – be it the mass swarm migrations of insects, the shoaling of fish, or the flocking of birds, swarming enables tasks that could not be performed by individuals alone. This may include protection from predators or a wide area search for food.

Fundamentally, swarming behaviour is predicated on each individual member following a set of simple rules and interacting only with its neighbours and environment. Thus, a true swarm has no form of central coordination and no overall leader.

The recent and rapid progress in several important technology fields (including lightweight digital communications systems, high-capacity

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rechargeable batteries and ‘intelligent’ decisionmaking algorithms) has enabled the practical implementation of artificial swarms to be realised.

In April 2020, 216 Squadron, under the umbrella of the Air & Space Warfare Centre, was re-formed as the RAF’s first swarming drone squadron.

Tactical advantages As well as sharing in the now widely accepted benefits of using unmanned aircraft for specific military tasks, such as reduced risk to life and persistence on station, the use of swarming drones offers several additional tactical advantages. These include the ability to quickly bring multiple assets (volume) to bear against an enemy target (overwhelm), while simultaneously

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A large, heterogeneous swarm of drones flown by a single operator (PHOTO: BLUE BEAR SYSTEMS RESEARCH LTD)

being able to self-organise and reconfigure during the mission (flexibility). This capability, in turn, helps to eliminate single points of failure should a drone be lost in flight (robustness). The increasing use of autonomy, both for the launch and recovery and mission command elements, also enables the swarm to be managed by very small numbers of personnel. Trials conducted so far have successfully demonstrated the ability to control over 20 aircraft simultaneously using only a single operator.

Inevitably, the development of such a new and potentially game-changing military capability is not without challenges. Fortunately, 216 Squadron is being assisted in its task with expert support from the Rapid Capability Office, Dstl and several of the UK’s leading defence and drone-related manufacturers. These include Leonardo, Blue Bear Systems and Callen-Lenz.

perform a multitude of functions. These range from the ability to rapidly launch and recover multiple drones from potentially austere locations, through to the in-flight management of a large heterogenous swarm containing a mix of differently configured platform and payload types.

The ability to formulate decisions during a mission without the assistance of a human operator makes the drone swarm, in scientific parlance,

Overcoming hurdles

a truly ‘complex’ system (as opposed to simply being a ‘complicated’ one). As a result, a new and potentially innovative regulatory framework will be required for the testing and operating of drone swarms, both within the UK and abroad. Early and ongoing engagement with the Military Aviation Authority is already helping to ensure that any such swarming systems placed on the military aircraft register will operate in a safe and secure manner.

Drone swarms offer the promise of an exciting, albeit technically challenging, new military capability that will continue to grow and mature in the decades to come. It is also a capability that 216 Squadron is proud to be leading on behalf of the RAF.

Specific technological hurdles being overcome in the quest to field the RAF’s swarming drone capability include the creation of a self-healing ‘mesh’ communications network. This seamlessly connects the swarm together and enables the passage of data between drones. Another challenge is the design and manufacture of specialised miniaturised payloads that can be carried and powered by each individual platform.

However, perhaps the most challenging technology of all is the software that is being developed to support the swarm’s highly automated behaviour, and which is required to

“Drone swarms offer the promise of an exciting... new military capability”

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HUMAN MACHINE TEAMING

Focusing on what is important, not what is interesting Group Captain Gareth Prendergast, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Force Development, warns of the potential burden drones may introduce if their integration with crewed platforms is not carefully considered in advance

Future remotely piloted aircraft (drones) will not be operated in the same handson way as current platforms, such as Reaper (PHOTO: CPL STEVE BUCKLEY RAF/MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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iscussion of Human Machine Teaming (HMT) is on an inexorable rise. The immense volumes of data, collected in today’s battlespace, are beyond the ability of a human to process fast enough to make the information actionable. The use of machines to provide decision-quality information and choice from these disparate datasets is key to operational success in the future. HMT is

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essential for a future where crewed and uncrewed capabilities work seamlessly together. But without deliberate critical analysis, operational risk will increase if our conceptual approach to autonomy and information fusion is found wanting.

The challenges for HMT in contested environments must be addressed head-on, beyond the interesting end ‘effect’ that these capabilities deliver. Careful consideration of how these capabilities

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will accomplish their tasks within this type of systemsof-systems approach is necessary. There is risk that substantial dependencies would be inadvertently created and, unless delivered exactly as described and on time, uncrewed systems could jeopardise the crewed systems that they are there to support.

Confidence is key The danger of the current assumptions that uncrewed airborne capabilities will definitively be a part of the force mix is that there has not yet been sufficient discussion as to why they are necessary or to which mission types they are best suited. Small remotely piloted air systems (drones), providing electronic warfare capabilities to a crewed platform, appear attractive, but need to be utilised at the right time and place, and the human crew must have confidence that the appropriate effect will be delivered.

Combining a core platform (any type of crewed flying vehicle from Typhoon to E-7) with swarms of drones will require a significant rethink as to how we initiate operations. The drones may not fly at the same speed or have the same range if launched independently of the crewed vehicle.

Plus, if capabilities are released by the host platform they might be occupying a stores position and may, therefore, impact the primary mission.

Pre-positioning drone capabilities creates force-protection, logistical, maintenance and operating considerations, potentially increasing the human peril and footprint necessary to support these capabilities. Moreover, an operator must trust that the uncrewed capabilities are airborne and delivering the desired effect as they enter heavily contested and denied airspace, unable to communicate with drone ground control stations.

Network resilience This issue of communications is critical, and we must ensure that we do not become reliant upon notions of a resilient ever-present network. In the future, swarms of drones will not be operated in the same way as current capabilities, such as Reaper, using ground control stations and limited autonomous modes for communications loss. Drones will require a far more sophisticated support system, where a mission will have to be completed in spite of communications denial. Should proximity permit, a crewed platform could provide support, but this would increase the workload of the operator during the most dangerous parts of a mission.

The RAF has long benefited from having versatile capabilities that can fulfil missions and functions different to those originally envisioned.

The successful use of Tornado as a CAS (close air support) platform, rather than a nuclear bomber, is

one example. If drones are procured to complete specific mission sets with dependencies on other crewed and uncrewed platforms, we may find ourselves limited in our response to future scenarios.

An increase in the level of autonomy seems appropriate for swarms of drones conducting non-lethal missions utilising either rules-based algorithms or machine learning. This would allow the drones to operate dynamically in the presence of the crewed vehicle. That said, the high cost of this level of autonomy may make the drones non-attritable. In other words, they would be too expensive to lose on operations. It would, however, provide the capability to retain the human as the key decision-maker, particularly regarding lethal effects.

A more radical step would accept that the drones will be making decisions based upon their

The complex ethics around autonomy combined with strict rules of engagement may impact the political appetite for the future use of autonomous systems (PHOTO: GA-ASI)

“Human Machine Teaming is essential for a future where crewed and uncrewed capabilities work seamlessly together” programming. This would place the accountability for launching these capabilities on the shoulders of the operational commander who may not be aware of the conditions at the point of ‘trigger-pull’ and any adverse legal or ethical consequences.

Mitigating this requires either very sophisticated programming of capabilities approaching that of artificial general intelligence (AGI) or an acceptance that there is a greater potential for mistakes. Political appetite for their use may be affected by these considerations along with specific rules of engagement – considerations that might not encumber a potential adversary.

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Complex weapons Chris Allam, Managing Director at MBDA UK and Group Executive Director of Engineering, highlights the company’s current support to the RAF and its future plans as part of Team Tempest

A The SPEAR family of weapons is in the final stages of development for the RAF (IMAGE: MBDA)

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t MBDA, we’re proud to be the RAF’s trusted partner for complex weapons – providing the tip of spear for UK Combat Air platforms including Typhoon, Lightning and, soon, the new Protector and future Tempest aircraft. We are constantly working to deliver capability to the frontline faster and cheaper than before.

MBDA’s relationship with the RAF dates back over 70 years and, today, we have in excess of 4,500 MBDA engineers and specialists in the UK, plus many more within the 1,700 companies in our UK supply chain, dedicated to ensuring the RAF and the rest of our armed forces have the very best sovereign weapons capability for when it matters most.

Today, MBDA works on five main weapon systems for the RAF, all of which provide truly

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world-leading capability and are designed and built in the UK. For the RAF’s air dominance platforms, we provide the ASRAAM and Meteor missiles, which, together, seamlessly dominate the air environment from the shortest to the longest of ranges. Three strike weapons make up the rest of the Portfolio – Brimstone for close air support, the SPEAR family for networked tactical strike at stand-off ranges, and Storm Shadow for long-range strikes against hardened targets.

Meteor is the newest missile in the RAF’s inventory. Equipping Typhoon and, soon, F-35, Meteor is the only in-service air-to-air missile powered by a ramjet engine – giving the RAF Typhoon force the ability to engage hostile aircraft at ranges far beyond their ability to hit back.

DEVELOPING CAPABILITIES

approaches pioneered through the CWP are now being implemented elsewhere in defence. We’ve worked hard to improve our responsiveness and agility – typified by our performance in the Centurion programme, integrating an MBDA weapon suite onto Typhoon, where industry and the RAF came together to deliver game-changing capability to the frontline faster and cheaper than before.

Making procurement more responsive

The MBDA Meteor air dominance missile will soon be integrated onto the UK’s F-35B Lightning fast jet (IMAGE: MBDA)

Meteor is both a major UK and international success, built in Bolton with contributions from five other partner nations, who shared the RAF’s vision for this revolutionary new Combat Air weapon.

No less revolutionary is the new SPEAR missile family, which is now in the final stages of development for the RAF. Building on the legacy of the highly successful Brimstone family, SPEAR is the most compact and complex weapon system ever designed by MBDA. With an advanced multimode seeker, two-way datalink and powered by a turbojet, SPEAR will give the RAF an unprecedented ability to perform tactical strike at over-the-horizon ranges – all within a package small enough for eight missiles to be carried inside an F-35.

SPEAR is much more than just a single missile.

It is a full combat system in its own right with future variants – such as the SPEAR-EW standoff electronic warfare missile – that, together, will fundamentally reshape how Combat Air dominates the battlespace.

The Complex Weapons Portfolio For the last decade, design and delivery of missiles systems for the RAF has been managed through the Complex Weapons Portfolio (CWP). The Portfolio is a unique industrial partnership with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) that ensures RAF aviators can continue to rely on affordable sovereign missile systems in a way that both ensures Operational Independence and enhances UK prosperity. To maximise military capability and deliver value for money, MBDA has streamlined the 27 different weapon systems that existed at the start of the CWP into five families of complex weapons programmes utilising commonality, modularity and re-use of systems and technology.

The CWP has delivered over £1.2 billion better value for money than open competition across 10 years (validated by the MOD). Many of the

We’re not resting on our laurels, however. Building on the Portfolio approach, our future Portfolio proposition aims to realise further savings where possible and to radically increase end-to-end agility, making complex weapons procurement more responsive to future threats. We’re working hard today on how we implement this transformative vision to ensure the next generation of RAF weapons is delivered with more agility, more capability, and quicker and cheaper than ever before.

Both SPEAR-EW and FC/ASW (Future Cruise/ Anti-Ship Weapon) – the future replacement for Storm Shadow – are great examples of how these new Portfolio approaches can lead to innovative new solutions to meet RAF operational requirements.

Within the Tempest programme, where MBDA is a key partner in our role as the effects coordinator, we are ensuring that our new solutions will be a truly integral part of a future Combat Air system.

We are experimenting to develop deeper understanding of the role that effectors can play in future air combat. We are also working with customer and industry partners to ensure the physical, functional and information architectures exist to support rapid integration of new weapon capabilities, spiral upgrades to leverage the capability in our current solutions, as well as supporting fundamentally different ways to defeat out adversaries in the future As an integral part of the defence community in the UK, MBDA is very proud to have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and to have received the Gold award by the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme. We work hard at being not only an innovative supplier and supporter of the Armed Forces, but also being a great place to work for former service personnel.

Recognised as one of the Top 25 big companies to work for in the UK, MBDA has also been awarded the Gold ‘Investors in People’ award and the Gold award of the 5% Club – with over 10% of our employees being paid to study towards a qualification. Today, over 300 ex-forces or former Civil Service employees currently work for MBDA UK, and we’re actively seeking to recruit around 500 new colleagues over the next year to support the work we do for the RAF and across defence.

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FUTURE COMBAT AIR CAPABILITY

The ‘TyphoonTempest continuum’ BAE Systems’ FCAS Business Development Director, John Stocker, and Market Strategy and Development Director – Europe, Anthony Gregory, explain how continuous improvements to Typhoon will feed into the Tempest Programme and ensure continuity of Combat Air capability and skills

Investment in the continuous development of Typhoon (left) must feed into cost efficiencies in the Tempest (right) programme (IMAGE: BAE SYSTEMS)

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he RAF’s 2018 Combat Air Strategy set a bold future vector for UK military aerospace. Its clear focus on transformative approaches and agile capability development will revolutionise the time and cost lifecycle associated with traditional Combat Air programmes.

Typhoon will continue to deliver frontline capability as the backbone of the RAF UK fast jet fleet through to the 2040s. In Germany, Typhoon will remain in service 20 years beyond that.

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There is now clarity about the capability investments required for Typhoon, amid the emergence of a quickly evolving and rapidly proliferating operating environment, which is presenting new challenges and is underpinned by the emergence of new threats and new technologies.

“The Combat Air Strategy was clear in terms of addressing capability requirements in the short, medium and long terms,” says John Stocker, BAE Systems’ FCAS Business Development Director.

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opportunities to further qualify, prove and integrate some of these technologies on existing platforms.

Typhoon is an outstanding platform from which we can do that with some of the technologies that we’re going to be pulling through into FCAS,” says Stocker.

Exploiting new capabilities

“It’s a continuum that goes from Typhoon today and on through Typhoon evolutions, as well as options around Long Term Evolution (LTE) and beyond. That’s the big picture driving the strategy.”

This approach to continuous improvement has been shared across the Typhoon Teams and is being applied by the BAE Systems Team, who are bringing the UK-initiated Future Combat Air System (FCAS) Programme – Tempest – to life.

“From the FCAS technology perspective, there are numerous funded programmes with a range of ongoing technology initiatives, which will form some of the foundational technology positions for FCAS. It is natural, logical and in our interests to use

For Anthony Gregory, BAE Systems’ Market Strategy and Development Director – Europe, the transition from one to the other is as much a question of maximising investments and efficiencies as boosting capability and retaining high-value critical skills, all of which contributes to the UK’s position at the forefront of the Combat Air sector. “Typhoon is a very capable platform, yet, looking at what’s next, it’s clear we need to exploit the new capability packages like the advanced electronically scanning radar, sensors and weapons. Then it’s time to start refreshing some of the core mission systems.

“Typhoon now benefits from a clear roadmap, agreed with the Eurofighter partner nations, which takes us towards the end of the decade – all of which builds upon on a series of capability enhancements, together with further aircraft acquisition from the German Air Force to continue Typhoon’s capability journey.

“We have a future capability blueprint backed

by Government commitments in the short to medium term and an aligned plan and vision for the long term,” explains Gregory. “This takes Typhoon on an exciting development journey. Successfully

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(above) The Typhoon (foreground) and Tempest (background) programmes are helping to maintain the UK’s lead in Combat Air capability development; (left) Tempest (foreground) will incorporate proven technologies from Typhoon (background) (IMAGES: BAE SYSTEMS)

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Ensuring a smooth transition from Typhoon (left) to Tempest (right) will sustain engineering skills and retain the UK’s position as a Combat Air pioneer

delivering against this plan will enhance the Typhoon platform for the core-nation partners. That will not only ensure retention of Freedom of Action, yet it will continue to create opportunities in the combat aircraft export market, which are vital to ensure that we retain sovereign capability in the UK.”

can bring them together for the operational benefit of both programmes, the better for all.

“We are on a capability evolution, underpinned by a common approach to engineering and certification. There must be commonality, efficiency and synergies through these journeys. Wherever we

(IMAGE: BAE SYSTEMS)

The backbone of UK air defence In the next decade, this investment will ensure Typhoon’s continued role as the backbone of UK air defence. New cockpit, airframe and communications enhancements, and a worldleading radar, will ensure Typhoon can take advantage of the huge volumes of data it will collect across the future battlespace and be able to share this between the air, land and sea domains, ensuring its vital role at the heart of an integrated system of systems.

And, in a post-Covid world, the importance of maximising value cannot be understated.

Gregory continues: “When you step back and look at the programmes in Europe and the UK, they are overlapping. Whichever way you look at it, we’re all in that same technology pool and the same supplier pool. The more we

“We are on a capability evolution, underpinned by a common approach to engineering and certification”

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can join the technology and capability roadmaps together to maximise value for the UK, including across the skills and prosperity agendas, makes sense.

“A clear benefit here is that work on Typhoon LTE will sustain engineering skills and knowhow. Keeping the right skills and capabilities is essential and a key part of the journey to make sure there is a smooth transition to FCAS.”

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Collaborating to assure next-generation RAF capability

Simon Tate Director of Operations – Air & Space, QinetiQ The provision of assured capability for the RAF in transitioning to the Next Generation Air Force requires agility, adaptability and an unprecedented level of collaboration between the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and industry. Dynamic innovation, progressive experimentation and rapid prototyping are also key prerequisites for delivering new capabilities, as is a truly collaborative and innovative mindset. The Air Test & Evaluation Centre (ATEC) partnership between the RAF Air & Space Warfare Centre (ASWC) and QinetiQ, working closely together to assure Air capabilities, is a good current example of this in practice.

QinetiQ is also driving innovation into service-delivery models, such as the Engineering Delivery Partner (EDP) programme described below, that harnesses pan-industry and academia expertise to provide agile engineering and capability assurance services.

Digitisation is a key theme in many areas, and recent significant investments in

digital engineering and digitisation of test, evaluation and training enablers supports the Astra campaign, which is looking to deliver Next Generation Air Force objectives, and enables more efficient, operationally secure and effective assurance of new capabilities.

A clear demonstration of this is the Tempest programme. As a collaboration partner, we will be focusing on effective pull-through of technology, along with digitising the process of Test & Evaluation. This will help ensure that research and development carried out over the years makes its way into the hands of the warfighter more quickly and safely, while taking time and cost out of the programme.

“Our approach is based on a concept of ‘mission-led innovation’” Our approach is based on a concept of ‘mission-led innovation’, working closely with customers and capability end-users to co-create solutions at pace, and to focus technology and service innovation to deliver customer outcomes. This approach is wholly consistent with the recognised need for a greater emphasis on experimentation and spiral development in delivering future Air capabilities.

This methodology is being successfully applied for Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) through

the EDP programme, delivered by the Aurora Engineering Partnership (formed by long-term DE&S suppliers QinetiQ, Atkins and BMT). EDP is the established default route for contracted engineering services for DE&S and is available for use by the wider MOD community.

It is a collaborative, progressive and agile programme that accesses the right skills, expertise and resources to ensure the UK’s Armed Forces and front-line Commands receive the best equipment and support. And it continues to evolve, with a significant increasing SME community (Provider Network) bringing a wide variety of niche capabilities that can be accessed for customer advantage.

The recent EDP contract to support new capability on Typhoon is a good example, covering a wide range of enabling engineering services, from integrated acceptance planning through to live trials, and including a key role in the Typhoon radar development programme and operational data analytics.

Supporting the RAF transition to a Next Generation Air Force is about more than just new technology and slick processes. As the Chief of the Air Staff highlighted in his recent DSEI keynote address, exploiting ‘new tech’ also requires the right mindset. Just as important as innovation in technology and services is the need for the right culture; one that promotes and rewards collaboration and creativity, exploits diversity and enables the RAF-industry team to fully exploit amazing advances in technology for operational benefit.

QinetiQ remains proud to partner with the RAF on its transition to the Next Generation Air Force.

www.QinetiQ.com

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Typhoon – continuously evolving to meet future challenges that Eurofighter is as vital to Europe’s defence in 2060 as it is today. With the range of capability development elements already committed, and with the others currently planned, Typhoon will feature prominently as part of our customers’ operations for many years to come.

Can Eurofighter Typhoon operators evolve their Typhoon capability over future decades?

Herman Claesen Chief Executive Officer, Eurofighter

Why does the Typhoon fast jet remain such a key asset for the RAF and other air forces?

Quite simply, the Eurofighter Typhoon consistently delivers. Wherever it operates, our customers have confidence that it is ready to perform whatever task is demanded of it, including protecting our customers’ sovereign airspace 24/7.

It is also an aircraft that will continue to improve in capability for decades to come. We have an established and progressive development programme that aims to keep users on the operational cutting edge as we move towards the future air environment.

How can Eurofighter support the RAF on its journey to a Future Force 2040?

Typhoon will play a leading role across our customer air forces as they move into the future. By successfully delivering operational advantage through continued capability developments we will ensure

www.eurofighter.com

The four core nations and the respective industry partners, alongside teams from Eurofighter and NETMA, have been working hard to bring absolute clarity of purpose to this evolving and complex development programme. We have a future capability blueprint that takes Eurofighter on an exciting development journey. Successfully delivering against this plan will not only enhance the Eurofighter platform for the core-nation partners, but will continue to create opportunities in the combat aircraft export market.

While recognising Eurofighter as the best swing-role aircraft available today, we also recognise that the future operational effect is driven by the ability to collect and analyse high volumes of information fast. That is why, as part of our plan, we will be upgrading the weapon system, cockpit hardware and architecture through our Long-Term Evolution (LTE) programme to provide significant growth potential. This is in combination with our E-Scan development programme, which enters into service this year, offering Eurofighter operators one of the best E-Scan products available on the market. That means the Eurofighter Typhoon programme is better placed than ever to build on its recent contract

successes like Quadriga (the agreement to supply 38 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft for the German Air Force) and the E-Scan radar development contracts.

What future opportunities exist for the Eurofighter over the long term?

Looking further ahead, we aim to complete the development of the LTE weapon system – a system that will support new aircraft builds, and effectively enable a generation 5.5 combat aircraft.

Our LTE journey will address the key areas that will help our customers counter future threats; the scope of work includes a new cockpit, air frame enhancements to improve performance, an enhanced communications system, Data link systems and an improved defensive aids (DASS) capability. Our plan ensures that we can evolve many of these new technologies and adapt them into existing fleets as required by our customers.

From a broader programme perspective, we know that competition is fierce across all of our markets and that our customers each have a choice. We know that to support future European collaborative air sector programmes, the continued development of Typhoon will play an important role in helping to maintain Europe’s defence industrial base, while ensuring its sovereign security of defence supply as we move towards future operational environments.

With continued commitment and collaboration across the Eurofighter stakeholder enterprise, we will make sure that Typhoon’s journey from here and into the second half of the century continues successfully for all our customers.

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LIGHTNING AND TYPHOON

Future connected operations Wing Commander Lee Gordon, OC 41 Test & Evaluation Squadron, highlights how future operations with F-35 Lightning and Typhoon fast jets will benefit from current experimentation in data-link integration

The ability for the F-35B and Typhoon to share data will enhance both aircraft and enable more complex combat air concepts (PHOTO: SAC CONOR MORGAN/MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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he Integrated Review, Global Britain in a Competitive Age, highlighted the RAF’s continued commitment to Combat Air, alongside our other critical Force Elements, as we modernise our Next Generation RAF towards Future Force 2040. As part of this process, spiral upgrades to Typhoon include an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, known as ECRS Mk 2, and the network-enabled Selective Precision Effects at Range (SPEAR 3) weapon system, delivering a formidable capability blend of kinetic and nonkinetic effects to our adversaries. In addition,

F-35B Lightning will see new weapons integrated, while software and emerging capabilities will be introduced that, when combined with Typhoon, will deliver to UK Defence a potent Combat Air Force mix, fit to deliver effect in the contested, congested and ambiguous operations of the future.

With the RAF’s Combat Air Force on the leading edge of capability upgrades and beneficiaries of UK innovation with high-end equipment programmes, also critical is our ability to integrate across Air and Space, bringing capability to bear and delivering effect in a timely and decisive manner.

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When the SPEAR 3 network-enabled mini cruise missile is integrated onto the UK F-35B, it will be at the vanguard of future combat air capabilities (IMAGE: MBDA)

The ability to build situational awareness, fuse mission and safety-critical information and deliver actionable, decision-quality data cannot be achieved

by Combat Air platforms alone. True integration of all Air and Space Force Elements is essential if we wish to ensure our ability to dominate the battlespace and interrupt an adversary’s decision-making process.

Datalinks as a warfighting capability The Future Force of 2040 is one that has transitioned from a mindset of platform-centric capabilities to that of integrated and resilient networkcentric capabilities. Intrinsic with this shift in mindset is a change of culture, particularly when considering the utility of tactical datalinks (TDLs).

Long since viewed as a critical situational awareness (SA) enhancing tool, with platform safety a natural by-product, advances in TDL technology and the speed of innovation in this area highlight an opportunity to broaden our network-centric capabilities as a Whole Force. TDLs should be viewed not just as complementary to our SA and platform safety, but also critical to enhancing our lethality in the future battlespace. As weapons and platform attributes were once viewed as the RAF’s warfighting capability for Combat Air platforms, datalinks and electronic warfare waveforms should now form part of the warfighting capability portfolio.

New platforms, such as E-7 Wedgetail and Protector, will enter the RAF inventory in line with our network-centric capability mindset. As this progresses, future connected operations will

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undoubtedly see fourth- and fifth-generation integration enhanced markedly, with new network nodes that will further expedite the ability to generate and disseminate decision-quality data across the battlespace. Enhanced sensors and further advances in TDL infrastructure will only add to the quality and breadth of available information, but integration is essential, and we should continue to train as we would wish to fight as a Whole Force whenever possible, and not retreat to Force stovepipes when new and classified capabilities emerge.

Next-generation weapon effects Introduction of network-enabled weapon systems, such as SPEAR 3, will deliver next-generation weapon effects for our Combat Air Force in a heavily contested, congested battlespace. Critically, with our enhanced TDLs and SPEAR 3, the ability to re-target weapons in-flight adds flexibility and ensures that weapons effects are delivered to the most appropriate target in a dynamic environment.

With F-35 Lightning utilising its unique fifthgeneration capabilities to create an environment for Typhoon to ingress the battlespace with enhanced survivability and lethality, thanks to its AESA radar and upgraded sensors, UK Combat Air will be on the leading edge of weapon and technology innovation for years to come. This will translate to a more-connected RAF Combat Air Force than ever before, and the ability to deliver global effects at range, with speed and precision.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Future technology and sustainability

Ian Muldowney Chief Operating Officer, BAE Systems Air We find ourselves at an interesting intersection of the fourth industrial revolution and the green industrial revolution. These two change vectors, if harnessed appropriately, will completely revolutionise our processes, our products and our services.

Game-changing technology is a key enabler, but it is important to broaden our aperture. You need the right building blocks in place – the right people with the right skills, and the right values and ways of working too. When we think about how we are building sustainability as an Air sector at BAE Systems, the key consideration is this: what capability do you need to underpin that sustainability?

As well as technology, we need to think also about skills and connectivity.

From a skills perspective, our goal is transformative – creating a workforce with agile skillsets, as opposed to being wedded to one discipline for life. It means, for example, developing people who are digitally native, because that allows you to work and collaborate in a very different way.

We want to equip people with skills that transcend boundaries that haven’t necessarily been of importance in the defence and aerospace industry in the past. Across the UK, we have recruited more than 800 apprentices into our company in 2021. We need – and take great pride in the fact that we are building today – the right skills to operate in a sustainable world.

Connectivity is also critical. The ability to share data very quickly through a focus on digital connectivity enables faster decision-making, taking time out of processes. In this context, sustainability means different parts of the enterprise doing things differently. In short, we’re moving to a world where work is more collaborative and less transactional.

That means we are working more closely than ever with our customers, with our supply chain and our partners.

It also means working with industries and organisations that we have never traditionally partnered with and bringing new and exciting capabilities into our sector. Formula E battery technologies from motorsport with Williams or high-efficiency heat exchange options from space industry with Reaction Engines are just two such examples.

Delivering an outcome And when we talk technology in this context, it’s not about technology for technology’s sake. It has got to deliver an outcome – an exceptional military capability or a better way of doing things.

What does this look like? A good example is Typhoon Future Synthetic Training – a step change in synthetic training that was created not just from a sustainability and affordability perspective, but also from a security and

national interest one. Clearly providing a leading solution outside of a live flying environment helps drive sustainability from an environment point of view. Our use of virtual reality and high-fidelity synthetics to train RAF pilots saved 75 million of litres of aviation fuel last year alone – equivalent to 184,000 tonnes of CO2. But it is also about the sustainability of the outcome that you’re trying to achieve. We’re not solely fixed on the environmental element, because you also need to sustain capability.

PHASA-35, our all-electric solar powered system, is another example. It brings the persistence and near-space surveillance and can be applied in both military and civilian contexts, such as watching for bushfires, or marine activities such as erosion or pollution. Likewise, the all-electric T650 system we’re developing with Malloy Aeronautics, which will be designed to carry a class-leading 300kg of payload. It could be used to carry out roles both in human-assistance areas and military augmentation, without burning lots of expensive fuel. Through our Tempest programme, we are looking at how a next-generation combat system is going to be sustainable in comparison to what we do on today’s platforms.

The drive to sustainability represents a rare opportunity for the defence enterprise to really collaborate. This is a natural call to arms. Why? Not because it is a requirement, but because it’s the right thing to do. It is inspiring our people, our supply chain, and our communities. It is key to ensuring we continue to work in partnership with, deliver for and support the Royal Air Force and our customers around the world. It is about doing the right thing to protect the long-term future of the industry and our environment.

www.baesystems.com/sustainability

GLOBAL STRATEGIC PARTNER PERSPECTIVE

Lieutenant General Luca Goretti Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force Delivering tangible results at the speed of victory

Technological innovation, advanced industrial techniques, space sovereignty, joint alldomain command and control, Artificial Intelligence, connectivity, speed of relevance...

What a speed of change! Are we all prepared? Can we operate alone? How can we remain relevant against all these challenges?

Synergies, collaboration, cultural change and proper mindset – those are the key elements to win the future challenges.

This year’s Italian Air Force Falcon Strike exercise highlighted an impressive and exceptionally diverse line up of aircraft, aircrew and ground personnel. Significantly, the United Kingdom used it as an opportunity to deploy its fifth-generation F-35B assets on board HMS Queen Elizabeth in Italy for the first time ever. This is the latest example of the close relationship between the Royal Air Force and the Italian Air Force.

A solid partnership rooted in years of collaboration and mutual respect that complements an important and synergistic industrial collaboration. Typhoon, F-35 and Tempest: a substantive and impressive cooperative bridge towards a great future force 2040.

In addition, the similar characteristics of our two air force fleets – both fielding F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and Typhoons – present common challenges and

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opportunities. In particular, with regard to the transition to the fifth generation, we are facing a process that should not only be seen as the integration of the F-35 into our air forces, but also as the integration, adaptation and transformation of our air forces within and around the Joint Strike Fighter environment.

This approach includes a technological and cultural leap that embraces all aspects of the force generation process.

Overall, it is an approach that evolves along three main lines of commitment: new mindset and advanced training, interoperable connectivity and security.

Above all, it is a process that takes time – a luxury that may soon be scarce, especially considering how our traditional geopolitical principles are being judged, challenged and, perhaps, even overtaken by a rapidly changing reality. The increasing speed of change is affecting our military structures and requires us to rapidly build an interoperable, flexible, modular and scalable strike force composed of fourth- and fifth- generation assets, capable of facing future scenarios. We may rely on fifth- generation aircraft, but we ought to operate with fourth-generation jets too.

Close cooperation between allies and partners is essential to achieve this objective. We need to

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promote and build on our network of relationships, capabilities, competencies and collaborations to be able to deliver tangible results at the speed of relevance (we like to call it ‘speed of victory’), today, tomorrow and in the future.

The future of the Italian Air Force and the RAF lies in the FCAS Tempest – a programme in which we have established a clear bond, and which represents both a challenge and an opportunity to drive innovation in all sectors and at all levels. In this respect, the concept of open architecture across the system of systems should overlook the need to ensure interoperability between platforms from the earliest design stages, in particular with regard to sensors, effects and connectivity.

I firmly believe that, even in such complex times, this knowledge and technological development must be mastered by our personnel, as it is the key to success.

Interoperability between our systems must be carefully monitored and complemented by interoperability, connectivity and cooperation among our airmen and women.

In a world where information travels faster than ever and where time and space are compressed by emerging new threats and disruptive technologies, seamless integration of our force structures becomes a critical element, not just an optional requirement.

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Nexus – Combat Cloud The Head of the AIX (Air Information Experimentation) programme, Squadron Leader Darren Goldstraw, tells David Hayhurst how the RAF’s Nexus Combat Cloud was developed

The RAF Rapid Capabilities Office conducted Babel Fish 7 trials aboard an RAF Voyager multi-role tanker/ transport aircraft for the first time in September 2020 (PHOTO: CPL LEE MATTHEWS / MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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peaking at the Air and Space Power Association’s Global Air Chiefs’ conference in July 2021, Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Sir Mike Wigston announced a major accomplishment in the RAF’s efforts to develop its next-generation air force under Project Astra.

“We are now at the point where our combat cloud called Nexus can begin to be introduced operationally,” the Chief of the Air Staff stated. “It is flexible, secure, proven and we have developed it in-house at a fraction of the cost of comparators.”

This achievement, developed and delivered with remarkable speed, is due in great part to the Babel Fish series of multi-platform/multi-entity

trials that have included the Nexus data platform.

Designed primarily to test interoperability and datasharing capabilities, these have been conducted by the RAF Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) under the Air Information Experimentation (AIX) programme, launched in 2019.

In September 2020, the RCO conducted Babel Fish 7 trials aboard an RAF Voyager multi-role tanker/ transport aircraft. Previous Babel Fish trials were concerned with information exchange capabilities between the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Lockheed Martin F-35B. Building on the lessons learned from these, Babel Fish 7 set out to examine how an airborne information node for multi-domain operations could

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be achieved. Capability Directors from all three Armed Services, along with representatives of various government departments, were invited aboard.

The Voyager was equipped with Nexus, the Deckard web-based app, and the Raven communication baseband system. Raven was used to host the mobile Nexus platform, enabling a secure connection between the Voyager and the AIX Data Centre in Farnborough. Once airborne, laptops and tablets were configured to show a real-time Common Operating Picture, constructed from data ingested into a groundbased Nexus node from a variety of information feeds.

In his July speech, ACM Wigston described how this was a functioning C2 (command and control) network configured at 25,000 feet “in just 15 minutes”.

Its utility and adaptability applies equally to a RHIB (inflatable boat), an armoured fighting vehicle, a warship or a command post. “This is the combat cloud we talk about, brought to life: data from every sensor, on any platform in the operating space; processed at the edge in real time into useful information; flagged to any user with a need for that information; accessed remotely and fused with what is already known, to give situational awareness at any level and enabling better decisions than our adversaries, executed at the speed of light,” he explained.

Continuous spiral development Clearly, Babel Fish 7 should be regarded as a major milestone, both in ensuring the Nexus Combat Cloud’s operational capability and in demonstrating the need for its future development. “It is important to note that, unlike previous capabilities that are often declared at a Final Operational Capability, the Nexus

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Data Platform and Combat Cloud is theoretically a capability without end, and is a continuous experimental spiral development using modern agile techniques,” explains Squadron Leader (Sqn Ldr) Darren Goldstraw, Head of the RCO AIX programme.

“Nexus will never be finished and will continue to evolve with the evolving threat and user needs.

The RCO AIX continues to develop the knowledge and understanding in the Information Advantage space that are required to make the RAF both a smart customer and a smart user of these modern technologies. The RCO AIX continues to experiment with novel and innovative ways of operating.

“As we move towards a Next Generation Air Force and Multi-Domain Integration (MDI) with the other services and Allies, further experimentation is critical in informing, teaching and testing our hypotheses.”

A constantly evolving capability With Nexus being inherently a constantly evolving capability, Sqn Ldr Goldstraw sees it as an obvious and integral feature of future Babel Fish trials, possibly in an airborne capacity or as part of wider infrastructure. “The most valuable lesson the RCO AIX has learnt from these trials is that there is no single answer to the MDI question,” he says.

“The Nexus concepts and patterns are a good start in the right direction, with scope for continuing capability development and greater understanding of MDI opportunities, risks and issues. The Babel Fish trials are designed to investigate interoperability issues and opportunities. It is inconceivable that Nexus as the future pattern for Air Combat Cloud will not feature within these activities.”

Nexus will be continuously developed throughout its lifetime to ensure it stays relevant and aligns with new technologies (IMAGE: BAE SYSTEMS)

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

One hundred years of supporting UK Defence

Vice President and Country Executive, L3Harris UK

fully exploit digital capability in a way that takes us far beyond simply trying to adapt current processes to the digital world. This belief is reflected in L3Harris’s approach to the NATO Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC) initiative. Here, we are focusing on how to aggregate data from multiple sources, across sensors and platforms in all domains, so as to ensure complete operational situational awareness, and to fully to inform decision-making.

This demands highly resilient and adaptive architectures that are datacentric and platform-agnostic – a philosophy at the heart of L3Harris’s approach to these new challenges.

How important is the recent 10year extension of the Airseeker support contract?

What challenges will this digital paradigm pose on resilience, connectivity and assurance?

This year, L3Harris celebrates 100 years of activity in the United Kingdom, and in our centenary year, we see Airseeker as the strongest evidence of our unwavering commitment to the defence and security of the UK. We regard it as a real privilege to have the opportunity to continue to develop and support this unique ISR capability out to 2035 and beyond. At the heart of the development of Airseeker’s capabilities is our understanding of the new digital environment and the systems-of-systems architectures that will be the key to future operations, in line with the UK’s vision set out in the Integrated Review.

It will demand novel concepts in the ISR environment. We have, for example,

Graeme Mackay

How should the military be developing its digital architectures and why?

Conversations at DSEI, across all levels of Defence, emphasised the need to

of our data-centric approach to awareness and decision-making. In an increasingly complex world, characterised by hybrid threats, bringing together huge quantities of data across multiple domains is the key to providing realistic solutions to the operational challenges military commanders will face.

How will these capabilities enable autonomous activities across the domains?

Mad Fox, our autonomous surface vessel, now with the Royal Navy, has recently demonstrated successfully nascent, experimental capability in the sharing and exploitation of data. Equally, we continue to develop ISR systems, applying machine-learning and artificial intelligence techniques to optimise the exploitation of data by operators and analysts in both air and ground environments.

“Airseeker [is] the strongest evidence of our unwavering commitment to the defence and security of the UK” developed open architecture ISR pods carrying a range of sensors across the intelligence portfolio from EO to radar to signals. Pods have been flown to great effect on UAS platforms and we are now developing agile systems for faster, higher-flying aircraft.

The aims are to make all available hardpoints potential ISR opportunities to provide and exploit data from all sources. This is a further development

Work continues in the US on the exploitation of such data, within multiintelligence, multi-platform architectures.

By providing automated cross-cuing and fusion, decision chains are shortened and targetable data made quickly available to the tactical edge. We are now looking to build on this with the RAF to enable better understanding of how such data could be exploited across its highly capable and rapidly developing digital architecture.

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JOINT ALL-DOMAIN COMMAND AND CONTROL (JADC2)

Commanding the future battlespace Paul Tremelling, Business Development Director at Northrop Grumman, explains why a greater ability to share information across all domains is essential and points to Link-16 as a useful starting point

U Command and Control (C2) is about directing assets – then monitoring and influencing how they perform (PHOTO: NORTHROP GRUMMAN)

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nder the command of Lieutenant Commander William W Outerbridge, U.S. Navy destroyer USS Ward was conducting a patrol outside the entrance to Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941. The crew was informed by visual signals from the minesweeper ship Condor of a periscope sighting at 03.57, and Outerbridge ordered an immediate search for the possible contact.

Less than three hours later, the crew of the Ward sighted a periscope, indicating a cargo ship was being stalked. The crew quickly attacked and subsequently sank what turned out to be a Japanese two-person submarine. However, word of the incident was largely ignored and, just hours

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later, the attack on Pearl Harbor began. While one domain was entering a war, another slept soundly.

This is a not criticism of any individual’s actions on that fateful day, but does offer a lesson that, even in our world of advanced communications, there remain areas, such as cross-domain sharing, where cohesive military communications fail.

Command and Control (C2) at its simplest is about directing assets – then monitoring and influencing how they perform. Various models exist, from tightly orchestrated events to the employment of assets free to act within broad guidelines. As warfare continues to evolve in complexity and scope – to include grey-zone operations – it is

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more important than ever that we do not act in predictable symmetrical, linear and graduated ways.

The various adversaries that the UK will face in the future won’t shackle themselves in that manner.

Historically, Western forces have had a tendency to fight symmetrically. Armies face off against armies. Quick Reaction Alert intercepts attack other aircraft. Our response to enemy action has been to directly oppose that action at the same time, in the same place, and often with a similar asset.

A simple baselining exercise – using the war cry heard from senior RAF officers in the recent Integrated Review, ‘On the grid or off the battlefield’ – would quickly discover that, through an understandable focus on things one can touch, there has been a tendency to be platform-centric for too long, while not paying enough attention to joining things up.

While individual forces urgently need to get their C2 infrastructure and procedures in order, they must do so in a way that acknowledges a clear requirement to act not just in isolation, but in national and coalition operations of unprecedented complexity and mutual dependence. Put simply, if a modern military cannot realise effective Joint AllDomain Command and Control (JADC2), it will fail.

Learning by example There are successful models for improvement: the U.S. Navy’s Naval Integrated Fire Control-CounterAir, has existed for some time; the US is also making significant steps towards JADC2 with the U.S. Air Force Advanced Battle Management System and the U.S. Army’s Project Convergence and Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, as well as the U.S. Navy’s Distributed Maritime Operations that efficiently connects cross-domain sensors and effectors. We should, though, guard against a stovepipe solution to the problem of stovepiping. Individual services implementing significant change is, in itself, only progressive if an eye is kept on the sunny uplands of JADC2.

Most proponents of JADC2 concepts agree that a useful model is one of ‘sensibly federated clouds’ and multipath connectivity. The technology exists – we don’t need to prove that Link-16, Joint Range Extension Applications Protocol (JREAP), airborne translators, space layer comms, data ingest and exploitation work. We need to use modern technology and approaches, such as digital twinning, to work out how data and information needs to flow, and why.

We need to stop talking in terms we don’t really understand and to think about what is actually behind the lightning bolts. Can we connect all our warfighters using existing communications equipment? Yes we can and, in Link-16, we have an effective capability that should suit tactical

needs. It would be foolish to attempt to find a onesize-fits-all communications capability – and we might want to think a little longer about standards being applied across the digital battlespace.

One massive benefit of the electromagnetic spectrum is that a platform can disseminate data or intelligence in one format that can be translated into another. Capabilities exist today in other spheres to take structured and unstructured data, to exploit them and place them in front of people in decision-quality formats. Let’s not pretend it can’t be done in the military context. Other examples that could be brought to bear are civilian logistics technologies and military autonomous asset C2 systems, which would provide sensible real-time asset management and self-healing Air Tasking Orders.

We should remember that much needs to happen pre-hostility, in peace, in the grey zone, in the age of contest – where we might be operating, not fighting. We need to train. We need to plan, prepare and posture. Data exploitation will be key.

Doctrine and Organisation are as important as the Equipment itself. We must be critical about the C2 models for various environments – those suitable to counterinsurgency in permissive environments to warfighting at pace and scale, to operations in an anti-access and area-denial contested environment, where combatants are doing their best, given rules of engagement and degraded communications.

Ample evidence demonstrates that the largest change is cultural – be that in how we procure, what we accept, how we think and how we fight. Looking back at the USS Ward – with an integrated JADC2 capability in place, not blinkered by symmetry, not viewing the enemy as linear, taking all possible responses into account and considering the graduation to hostilities across all domains – how might things have been different.

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The Link-16 tactical data link that is used on many NATO and coalition air, land and sea platforms is a good starting point for finding a solution to the JADC2 challenge (PHOTO: NORTHROP GRUMMAN)

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Zero emissions In light of the RAF’s intention to field the world’s first zero-emissions aircraft fleet, Michael Cervenka, President of UK-based Vertical Aerospace, explains the role that zero-emission aircraft will play in the future of sustainable aviation and showcases the company’s VA-X4 eVTOL aircraft

N Zero-emission aircraft like the VA-X4 will be commonplace in the skies sooner than many people realise (IMAGE: VERTICAL AEROSPACE)

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ew propulsion systems, advances in material science and software evolution have been the stepping stones of aeronautical progress. More recent developments in electric motors and batteries are accelerating technological progression, enabling an exciting new era of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft with incredible commercial and utilitarian potential. The certification ambitions and overall engineering progress of the top eVTOL developers mean that these aircraft will be in our skies sooner than many people think.

Supportive, forward-thinking regulators and authorities want these revolutionary new aircraft integrated into their transportation frameworks.

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A burgeoning eVTOL ecosystem is developing too, which will only accelerate assimilation into the transport system. It’s easy to see why – eVTOLs are safer, quieter, cleaner, easier to fly, more reliable than helicopters and suitable for use in myriad cases across multiple industries.

For passenger travel, eVTOLs can optimise airport shuttle and point-to-point journeys. They bring areas ill-served by today’s transportation network closer, making city centres and major transport hubs easily accessible. This connects more people, relieves congested road networks, and reduces the need to spend heavily on, or to maintain ground infrastructure, while lifting local industries and, ultimately, boosting national prosperity.

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Based on operating our own VA-X4 platform on a 40-mile mission, first-generation eVTOLs can deliver 400kg-600kg payloads at around $0.012 (less than a penny) per kg per mile with barely any carbon footprint.

In time, battery advances, plus hybrid options, will see eVTOLs with greater speed, range and payloads.

For emergency services, eVTOLs will replace helicopters for short-range medevac missions.

Furthermore, eVTOLs, with their small logistical footprints, are compelling military support vehicles, not just for emergencies and logistics, but also for reconnaissance and security tasks. They have a low acoustic profile and a zero infra-red signature.

Far less complicated than helicopters, eVTOLs are more dependable and easier to operate. That means drastically lower maintenance costs and much simpler training programmes. They are set to complement fast-emerging autonomous fleets too, and, in time, will evolve into autonomous eVTOLs. No doubt, more development is required before squadrons of eVTOLs become ubiquitous.

For instance, the creation of viable on-the-move charging stations must accelerate, yet getting high- voltage charging power to remote locations is a significant obstacle. Getting eVTOLs to remote sites is another factor, which will require modernisation of existing modes of transportation.

Civil/military cooperation As they have for over a century, air forces play a giant role in shaping our aviation future. They have the know-how, combined with resourceful, proven and expert aviators. They understand how to put new aircraft through their paces. And they have excellent facilities for flight-testing and maintenance.

Partnering with the world’s air forces will fuel the development of advanced air mobility, offering invaluable resources for eVTOL manufacturers on home turf. Together, flying as one, we can bring advanced air mobility and all its inherent benefits, to the world. The electric flight revolution is not imminent – it has begun. The air forces engaged today are aviation vanguards. Collaboration between the military and eVTOL manufacturers means sharing knowledge and shaping the future – together.

The RAF has stated its intent to field the world’s first zero-emission fleet, yet it is the US Air Force (USAF) that has taken an early eVTOL lead. Their Agility Prime research and development programme seeks to accelerate the commercial market for advanced air mobility vehicles. In doing so, it is hoped that the USAF will soon benefit from the deployment of commercial-grade support vehicles adapted according to need across its operations.

For Vertical Aerospace, 2021 has been an incredible success, with a listing planned on

the New York Stock Exchange and a significant amount of capital raised to fund the company’s development and certification programme. There’s no doubt however, that smart, collaborative R&D makes civil/military partnerships attractive, especially with readier access to government grants and resources. Strong teams with strong technologies require strong ecosystem partners and backing as they navigate certification.

In the future, eVTOLs will replace helicopters for short-range medevac missions (IMAGE: VERTICAL AEROSPACE)

“The electric flight revolution is not imminent – it has begun.

The air forces engaged today are aviation vanguards” Vertical Aerospace, based in Bristol and London, has been developing its eVTOL technology since 2016. We’re one of a handful of aerospace manufacturers globally to have flown full-scale prototypes. By 2024, we will have certified our VA-X4 all-electric, zero emissions, piloted, four-passenger aircraft. To help us get there, we’ve partnered with some of the world’s most reputable companies, including American Airlines, Avolon, GKN, Honeywell, Microsoft, Rolls-Royce and Virgin Atlantic.

Yet an ecosystem encompassing regulation, airspace management, infrastructure and energy supply is still required. Here in the UK, we’re working with Ferrovial, Heathrow, NATS and Virgin Atlantic to map out and develop that framework. Our recent whitepaper outlined the challenges we must overcome if we’re to unleash the potential of advanced air mobility – and Britain’s role at its forefront.

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Prototyping the Sustainable Next Generation Air Force The RAF wants to achieve a Net Zero energy/fuels CO2e emissions status where possible by 2040.

Group Captain Maurice Dixon from the RAF’s Astra Sustainability team explains

Colonel Tim Peake tries the combat tactics trainer at RAF Shawbury.

Such simulator technology is delivering costand resourceeffective training (PHOTO: CPL NICHOLAS EGAN RAF/MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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he RAF Net Zero strategy has three coordinated themes that are interlinked to ensure the delivery of a joined-up people, places and platform Next Generation Air Force 2040 delivered by focused prototyping, Living Laboratories, Digital Twins, experimentation and systems-of-systems approaches.

Theme 1: Net Zero – Business as Usual (BAU) The Net Zero 2040 team is engaged with Air Command to identify processes that require sustainability interventions to deliver the greatest impact from requirement setting, options

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development, scrutiny and assurance, decisionmaking and procurement. This requires Net Zero transformation within Air Command, and within its Capability delivery partners, such as the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and commercial partners for its estate, and the Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) organisation, together with its industry partners for air systems and equipment.

The RAF is also planning to undertake a Training Requirements Analysis (TRA) to define generic Net Zero/sustainability knowledge everyone requires, and the specific knowledge required for each profession and specific roles and functions.

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To prototype and develop Net Zero BAU guides, workshops and case studies have been developed.

These will be expanded across Air Command teams to inform where Net Zero is relevant to them and how to embed it as BAU in normal activity.

To leverage the widespread innovation in the workforce, Net Zero and sustainability projects are encouraged and supported via the Astra Sprint programme to fund ideas at station level. The RAF Sustainability Think Tank has been formed from academically qualified staff from all ranks and professions to leverage our workforce’s sustainabilityrelated expertise to support the formal Net Zero programme. For the overall Net Zero by 2040 vision to be delivered, Net Zero BAU must become embedded in the RAF’s modus operandi by 2025.

Theme 2: Net Negative Estate The RAF estate emissions need to become Net Zero by 2030 and, ideally, Net Negative to build a ‘carbon credit’ by 2035, which will help offset legacy aviation emissions by 2040. Net Negative estate activity focuses on including Net Zero building performance targets as BAU when defining and delivering new infrastructure projects. This includes: replacing old energy-inefficient buildings with new energy-efficient modular-construction ones; energy- and water-efficient infrastructure project designs; LEDs and energy-efficient equipment, as well as using solar photovoltaic, heat-pump and other clean-energy technologies.

Digital Twins of buildings and sites are being used to help simulate and evaluate real-world versus ideal-world scenarios, and to assist in making datainformed decisions. To understand the complex interactions and options available, RAF Leeming is the designated Air Estate Living Laboratory, supported by the RAF Experimentation Unit (RAFX) and a collaboration with academia (Project ViTAL). RAFX and Project ViTAL are prototyping a wide range of clean-energy technologies, including geothermal energy, hydrogen and lightweight roof-mounted solar technologies.

Included in Estate Net Zero activity is the transition of White Fleet business cars and vans to Ultra Low Emission and Zero Emission Vehicles with supporting recharging and refuelling points – aiming to acheive 100% by December 2027. The aim of the RAF Leeming Living Lab approach is to understand the complex interactions between different Net Zero technologies, and to develop a common, site-adaptable methodology to define and cost an RAF Leeming Action Plan to become Net Zero by 2025. This will be applied to all RAF sites to achieve the Net Zero estate aim by 2030, and Net Negative status by 2035, including deployed sites to operate ‘beyond fossil fuels’ by 2035.

Theme 3: Net Zero Aviation The delivery of effective soft and hard battle-winning Air Power is paramount and is unlikely to achieve zero emissions before the second half of this century. However, there is much already under way to reduce aviation emissions in preparing for and prosecuting effective low-emission combat air operations.

For instance, modern simulators and synthetic training technology are delivering closerealism experiences across flying, Air Traffic Management and RAF Regiment training.

Synthetic training in these professions is already improving training quality and student effectiveness, as well as reducing training costs and their training carbon and resource footprint. Project Gladiator is linking simulators to provide a ‘train anywhere, anytime, any context’ environment that can link coalition partners in a more efficient, effective and cost-efficient manner. Project Telum has a stated aim of replacing the Grob Tutor training aircraft with a zero-emissions training aircraft and supporting a synthetic training environment to provide a more effective Youth Aviation Air Experience programme with pilot assessment and grading.

The RAF is leveraging Uncrewed Air Systems (UASs) where they provide advantage. To do this, it is defining the future air platform technology improvements and new system designs to operate in the atmospheric conditions and lowemissions environments of 2040 and beyond.

Again, Digital Twins are key to simulating the future operating environment and air systems required in 2040 and beyond.

The most immediate aviation reducing opportunity being investigated is the use of lesspolluting, whilst equally or more effective, alternative fuels such as sustainable and synthetic aviation fuels (SAF). These can be used in various blends with normal aviation fuels by most Ministry of Defence aircraft, up to the currently approved 50:50 blend ratio. To de-risk a potential need to operate beyond a 50:50 blend, the RAF is prototyping trials to understand the challenges of producing, handling and operating on 100% SAF on both home and deployed airbases.

The RAF is keen to proactively support the UK government’s JetZero and FlyZero programmes, where they support mutual RAF and civil aviation Net Zero Aviation needs and R&D acceleration. This technology provides operational advantages, including reduced acoustic and thermal footprint, and compliance with more stringent national environmental legislation. It will also help the RAF become operationally more resilient and self-sufficient with a reduced logistics chain and on-site production capability.

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RAF CAREER PATHS TO 2040

Next Generation career pathways The distinctions between civilian and military career paths are set to become more flexible and blended, with RAF personnel having the opportunity to dip in and out of uniformed serviced during their working lives. Air Vice-Marshal Maria Byford, Chief of Staff Personnel, outlines how her team is preparing for this and other career innovations

Career intermissions enable recruits to pursue other goals and provide individual flexibility (PHOTO: CPL JAMES LEDGER RAF/MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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ith the character of warfare changing rapidly in today’s uncertain world, the Integrated Review and the RAF Strategy place significant importance on air and space power and the need for modernisation through ASTRA. Put simply, the successful delivery of decisive air and space power relies on our people; we must, therefore, ensure that our workforce and its structures remain sufficiently agile to meet the demands of the future.

Achieving this requires a diverse and inclusive organisation, interoperative and collaborative by nature, where curiosity and challenge is encouraged and opportunities exploited, with people at the heart of decisionmaking. We are blessed with a highly trained and specialised workforce, with strong leaders and followers whose motivation and commitment is second to none. It is critical that we provide attractive and adaptable career opportunities

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to meet the changing demographic and expectations of our workforce.

Our career pathways must offer flexibility of employment and lifestyle, and provide opportunities that reflect the needs of our diverse workforce; they must recognise and nurture individual talent by providing a range of fulfilling development opportunities at all levels of the organisation.

We must also better understand and employ the range of skills across our workforce, all while ensuring we maintain the necessary skills and experience, in the right quantity, to develop and operate technologically advanced capabilities in an increasingly complex and contested environment.

Professions of the future To allow talent to flourish, we have already opened up many appointments that were restricted to certain branches or trades, as demonstrated very visibly by the appointment of non-flying Branch Station Commanders at RAF Brize Norton, RAF Northolt and RAF Waddington. This is only the beginning, and our most ambitious change is the transformation from the 70-year-old model of Branches and Trades to the 11 Professions of the future. This will provide broader employment and training opportunities, with competence-based career management ensuring that skills are accurately captured, employed and developed to meet the requirements of the Service and improve personal satisfaction.

A new Pan Defence Skills Framework will ensure that the skills and competences captured are common across Defence, both tri-Service and Civil Service. Career management will become more flexible, able to provide fulfilling opportunities for specialists, as well as generalists, and allow individuals to move beyond the constraints of their original career choices. Heads of Professions have been appointed and are developing their strategies for what their Profession will look like in the future.

We will also see other changes in the way that some Professions or smaller cohorts are career-managed. Where management panDefence is beneficial, for instance in Cyber and Medical, with skills sitting across a number of TLB (Top-Level Budgets) organisations, unified career management will allow for greater use of talent, providing greater individual and Defence choice.

We now have a well-established process for Service leavers to rejoin the Regulars, and we intend to provide more agile and adaptable employment opportunities to support a two-way flow between Regular and Reserve service, through the development of Terms and Conditions of Service and HR policies. To progress this further, work is under way across Defence to establish assured

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lateral entry mechanisms to enable transition into and back out of Industry, in order to access and retain talent and skill by encouraging alternative flows into and across the Defence Enterprise.

To support 21st-century career pathways, we offer greater flexibility of working patterns than ever before, with a wide range of flexible service options available.

The restrictions associated with the pandemic helped us to accelerate this cultural change, and many of us are now well practised and technologically able to exploit the benefits of alternative working arrangements. While career intermissions continue to provide individual flexibility, ASTRA initiatives to enable increased accompanied service and remoteworking opportunities complement this choice.

This creative career management aids retention and improves wellbeing across the workforce.

Work is also under way to consider a more responsive Professional Military Education across Defence, with less emphasis on exclusive residential courses for the few, to ensure that more have access to the right opportunities at the right time. When combined with less emphasis on the completion of career courses as prerequisites for certain assignments and promotion, opportunities will open up and ensure that diverse talent can thrive.

To me, the future looks encouragingly bright.

A pan-Defence management model for certain skill sets, such as medical or cyber, will enable those specialities to be used with greater agility to the benefit of all the Armed Forces (PHOTO: GUY BELL/ALAMY)

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Training with augmented reality Jenny Beechener asks Cranfield University’s Professor John Ahmet Erkoyuncu how augmented reality is adding a new dimension to training

Augmented reality, using technology such as Microsoft’s HoloLens, has the power to help by enhancing vision (PHOTO: MICROSOFT)

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he Ministry of Defence is already using software developed by the gaming industry to create immersive virtual reality (VR) training environments and lower costs. Similar in design, but very different in function, augmented reality (AR) has the potential to benefit many more applications by adding to, rather than replacing, your vision.

AR reacts with the real world to clarify and explain everyday tasks and help solve problems.

It can improve performance efficiency and increase consistency, and is unaffected by international boundaries. Cranfield University’s Centre for Digital Engineering and Manufacturing is researching opportunities to use the technology in real-world environments under the leadership of Professor John Ahmet Erkoyuncu. “We are trying to solve existing problems and improve efficiency and effectiveness,” he says. “It can speed up training and add detail to the learning process.”

Cranfield is working with several major industry players to evaluate a range of applications from training to operations. Early results from laboratorybased studies on maintenance activity show a 40% reduction in the time needed for some relatively complex tasks. “We are improving the time it takes to do diagnosis and this can save time and cost,” says Professor Erkoyuncu. The technology also helps to reduce errors: “AR helps to complete a task correctly in the first instance, and answers queries that might otherwise slow a project down.”

Reducing complexity The university’s research shows that AR can play an important role in knowledge sharing and knowledge management within an organisation.

It brings more consistency across tasks and enables novices to benefit from expertise

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developed by more experienced operators: “As a result, you can reduce complexity and bring more standardisation to common activities.” This makes it easier to tackle complicated assignments and shortens the time needed to train.

In an example of accelerated training, Cranfield worked with a local manufacturer to increase in-house production by combining AR with on-the-job training for new recruits. New team members learnt faster and made fewer mistakes compared to conventional training methods.

In another project, Cranfield is using AR to provide visual content to pilots to assist them with their work. “This is not a heads-up device, but a head-

“AR helps to complete a task correctly in the first instance, and answers queries that might otherwise slow a project down” mounted HoloLens that can overlay information to help the pilot,” explains Professor Erkoyuncu. Search and rescue is a good example of where the HoloLens can relay anomalies in the environment that the pilot might not otherwise see or might miss. “AR can visualise patterns and help to detect where a person might be. This can shorten the time taken to locate someone, save lives, and reduce fuel consumption.”

A longstanding partnership with Babcock International Group is examining ways of capturing tacit knowledge with the support of AR. “Employees may have learnt a trick that improves on standard practices,” says Professor Erkoyuncu.

AR goggles can deliver anomalies in the environment that the pilot may not be able to see when undertaking a search and rescue operation.

(PHOTO: CPL LEE MATTHEWS/MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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“This knowledge is not necessarily documented and takes time to learn. We are looking at how to capture that and share this within the company.”

Organising data Central to any AR project is the management and use of data, and the university’s research programme is studying ways of filtering the relevant information into a form that is accessible and useable. Much of the work is conducted using an ontology model, which organises and structures data according to a set of facts and conceptual layers that can then be applied to different applications and tasks. Professor Erkoyuncu explains that this is just one approach, but putting data at the heart of the activity is important in order to access, store and apply the knowledge when and where it is needed.

Excessive automation comes with risk and can lead to an overdependence on remote support, he warns: “There are challenges in these areas. The ability to apply AR everywhere is probably not possible.

We need to build a bridge between the object the person is looking at and the database that overlays it.”

Notwithstanding the challenges, Professor Erkoyuncu is confident that the technology will continue to expand into many new applications.

“We need more field studies to address issues including task efficiency, adaptive visualisation methods and registration in very dark/very light environments,” he says. This will help to open up emerging opportunities in more specialised and safety-critical environments. “I believe AR has a bigger role in a safety-critical environment than not having it, because – as long as people are trained correctly – ultimately, it can improve the domain knowledge and situational awareness.”

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Transforming UK military Flight Training with innovation and mixed reality systems UK MFTS trainees in the required numbers with the right mix of knowledge and competencies. We also recognise that our UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) trainees have an incredible commitment to their own learning and development.

It is this quality that often enables us to innovate collaboratively with our UK MOD and industry partners, offering trainees the opportunity to accelerate their training with the goal of reaching their Front Line units and future military careers as early as possible.

Tim James Managing Director, Ascent Flight Training Ltd

How can Ascent Flight Training support the RAF’s Future Force 2040?

Within our UK Military Flying Training System (MFTS) programmes we are proud to support all three of the British Armed Forces with equal commitment. The RAF vision for 2040 is a key ingredient in our own business strategy, which seeks to continually evolve and innovate the way we design and deliver military flying training. Across Defence we are experiencing incredible demand for change, increasing demand for sustainable solutions, and a growing appetite for the rapid exploitation of technologies to deliver improvement in key metrics, such as reductions in time in training.

We recognise that the composition of the Front Line will be in a continued state of adaptation and we must remain aligned with requirements, and provide

What is the latest on fixed-wing training?

Having reached our critically important UK MFTS Full Course Capability milestone in 2020, we are now able to focus more of our resources on innovation and continual improvement. We are very proud of the collaborative nature of this work, involving UK MOD and our industry partners.

We are pleased to announce that the UK MOD awarded Ascent a £175 million contract on 29 September 2021 to further expand our Basic Flying Training programme. We aim to increase our capacity from 36 trainees to 53 trainees a year by 2025. We have already received the four additional Texan T1 aircraft, taking the fleet to a total of 14 aircraft, operated by our Fixed Wing Aircraft Service Provider, Affinity Flying Training Services. Together with Babcock and Lockheed Martin, we are expanding the infrastructure at RAF Valley to accommodate additional simulators, mission planning systems, staff and trainees.

A further example is the ongoing Fast Jet Transformation project being led from 4 FTS, RAF Valley, with support from across Defence, including Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) and RAF Central Flying School. The project aims to better understand the value of COTS technologies and their application within the UK MFTS Fast Jet pipeline, currently designed to take our trainees on a journey from Prefect, through Texan T1 and finally Hawk T2.

Trainees have benefited from Mixed Reality and Augmented Reality technologies as they have progressed through the pipeline.

How is rotary-wing training progressing?

Rotary Wing training continues to grow and evolve at RAF Shawbury and RAF Valley. A major programme of UK MOD investment is nearing completion at RAF Shawbury, with the delivery of additional infrastructure and an eighth full-dome Flight Training Device targeted for ‘Ready For Training Use’

by January 2022, well ahead of schedule.

That programme will enable the Royal Navy and the Army Air Corps to start ‘Rotary Wing Only’ training, which will drastically reduce training time and accelerate our delivery of trainees to the Front Line.

At RAF Valley, the Ascent and UK MOD aircrews are busily testing the full maritime capability on our H145 helicopters, provided by our Rotary Wing Aircraft Service Provider, Airbus Helicopters UK. This capability is critical to our training system, enabling crews to practise skills such as wet winching in some incredibly demanding scenarios, supported by the unique environments close to RAF Valley.

www.ascentflighttraining.com

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The RAF Talent Strategy Wing Commander Paul Webber outlines the RAF Talent Strategy and highlights the progress made to date

I The RAF seeks to recruit and retain a force that mirrors the society it serves (PHOTO: SGT PJ GEORGE/MOD/ CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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f you asked a dozen FTSE 100 companies what talent means to them, you are likely to get a dozen different answers and, consequently, 12 very different organisational talent strategies. Indeed, in many organisations the word ‘talent’ has replaced the word ‘people’ in the daily human resources (HR) lexicon. Organisations no longer ‘people-manage’, they ‘talent-manage’, recognising that every employee is a valuable asset to the business.

The RAF Talent Strategy, launched by the Chief of the Air Staff in October 2020, recognises that the RAF’s critical component is its people; indeed, it is the workforce that underpins the RAF’s reputation as an organisation of excellence. The RAF Talent Strategy defines talent as: “Individuals who make a difference

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to organisational performance, either through their immediate contribution or in the longer term by demonstrating the greatest levels of potential.”

Traditionally, the military has focused talent on the most gifted future leaders; however, the Talent Strategy does not consider leadership to be the only talent worth investing in. The Strategy recognises that talent is expressed in many different ways throughout the organisation and that an individual’s talent can manifest itself differently, at different stages of their career, depending on personal circumstances and aspirations. The Chartered Institute of Personal and Development (CIPD) identifies four characteristics associated with talented people: leadership behaviours, initiative, high levels of

PEOPLE CAPABILITY AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT

The aim of the RAF’s Talent Concepts and Development Team is to provide the tools and guidance for individuals to reach their full potential (PHOTO: SAC SARAH JONES/MOD/CROWN COPYRIGHT)

The RAF Talent Strategy contains three strategic objectives: increase diversity of talent; focus on supercharging organisational benefit; and develop targeted approaches.

Objective 1: Increasing diversity of talent includes the need to attract and retain high-potential personnel with critical skills and experience, the aspiration being to achieve true cognitive diversity throughout the organisation. Where appropriate, personal development interventions and tools will be developed to enhance career support for those from under-represented groups. Moreover, while leadership is only one of a number of talent characteristics we want in our people, we still seek early identification and development of our most talented leaders across all ranks.

Objective 2: The second objective to focus on supercharging organisational benefit seeks to ensure that all talent activities are aligned with the business need. This includes the identification and development of technical solutions to improve the capture and utilisation of individual knowledge, skills, experience and qualifications. We will develop a database to ensure accurate and relevant talent management information is available to support HR decision-making, as well as the provision of tools and guidance to line managers to help them enable their personnel to reach their full potential.

Objective 3: The third strategic objective seeks to develop targeted approaches through support of critical skill sets and attributes. This includes the establishment of skills-focused, horizontal career structures; capitalising on the benefits of lateral entry, as well as industry secondment and placements; reviewing and, where necessary, updating, existing officer career pathways; and developing a high-potential talent-development programme for other ranks.

expertise and creativity. These four characteristics are recognised in the RAF Talent Strategy, underpinned by high performance, drive, values and aspirations.

As part of the RAF’s commitment ‘to build a workforce fit for the future’ our organisational structures and policies will be reviewed to ensure that they provide an attractive proposition to the talented people we require. By recognising and rewarding our people appropriately, we will contribute to the creation of the Next Generation Air Force, which will feature a diverse, inclusive and empowered workforce that truly reflects the society it serves.

So how are we doing? We recently released a Talent Toolkit to support line managers and their staff in the conduct of performance-management conversations. The aim is to ensure that all four characteristics associated with talent are recognised and developed, to enable our personnel to be the best version of themselves. Currently in PDF format, the next iteration will provide a more user-friendly interface though a MoDNet delivered application.

In September 2021, we launched a 12-month High Potential Talent Programme (HPTP) pilot, which is an accelerated development opportunity for those with exceptional potential for advancement to Warrant Officer.

The aspiration is for the HPTP to become an enduring programme for our junior personnel.

We are currently developing a package of talentenhancing opportunities that combines aspects of the HPTP with a bank of inclusive development

“The RAF Talent Strategy recognises that talent is expressed in many different ways” opportunities, as well as training and development modules. The level of coherence of the existing officer career pathway is also being reviewed, in line with the RAF’s firm ambition for greater inclusivity.

The role of the Talent Concepts and Development Team is to provide tools, advice and guidance for individuals and line management to enable our personnel to reach their full potential.

However, talent management is a function of leadership and command at every level of the organisation. If we are to continue to attract, recruit and retain the very best people, we must all seek to encourage and enable our personnel to be the best version of themselves. The RAF Talent Strategy provides the guiding principles to achieve this.

Future Force 2040

AIR & SPACE POWER 2021

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