As announced by the Japanese Ministry of Defense, a three-nation cooperation convention on the realization of the 6th generation air warfare system (formerly known as Tempest) entitled “Agreement on the Establishment of the Intergovernmental Authority on Aviation Program (Global Combat Air Programme, GCAP)” was signed in Tokyo on 14 December. This “Global Warfighting Agreement” had already been signed a year ago with the industrial partners Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, BAE Systems and Leonardo have been announced.
This fighter jet project is therefore likely to pick up speed. In any case, the goal of making it available from 2035 has already been defined in Tokyo. Meanwhile, the French-German-Spanish counterpart of the Japanese-British-Italian fighter jet project still does not appear to be secured with comparable determination. Within the framework of the FCAS project, there have been repeated doubts about the cooperation with Germany have been repeatedly cooperation with Germany. In addition, the project partners Dassault and Airbus Defence & Space are also increasingly pursuing their own development goals with the further development of their Rafale and Eurofighter platforms to the F5 standard and Tranche 5 respectively. In all of this, however, the duality of two such ambitious large-scale projects is criticized as “unreasonable” and “excessive” by quite a few industry representatives, colleagues and military personnel. criticized.
Dual structures
As announced in Tokyo, “efficient cooperation” is of crucial importance in the implementation of the GCAP. The responsible cooperation agency will be based in the UK and will initially be led by Japan, while Italy will initially lead the industry consortium. Together with this agreement, the Governmental Organization GCAP (GIGO) was established as an international platform for this very cooperation. The aim is to establish a system to facilitate the governance and management of the GCAP and to enable “effective, cost-effective and timely program implementation”, according to the statement.
In order to actually achieve the planned entry into service of the system by 2035, the three ministers invited representatives from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, BAE Systems and Leonardo as project partners to exchange views on an ongoing basis to discuss the development of the primary platform and its “wingmen”. The monster project is (currently) led by Hitoshi Shiraishi (Senior Fellow-GCAP at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), Herman Claesen (Managing Director, Future Combat Air Systems at BAE Systems Air) and Guglielmo Maviglia (Director GCAP Programs at Leonardo). Incidentally, Mr. Claesen estimated this summer that first demonstrator would be in the air in five years. would be in the air. According to Dassault CEO Eric Trappier, the first flight of a demonstrator of the FCAS will be delayed until 2029/30 due to the delayed start of the initially defined Phase 1B – much later than 2026/27, as previously communicated. https://militaeraktuell.at/dann-sind-wir-in-europa-ganz-vorne-dabei/ Technological ambitions
GCAP is reportedly aiming to use next-generation technologies and develop into the “most advanced, interoperable, adaptable and networked air warfare system in the world”. The program is expected to create thousands of highly skilled jobs in partner countries over the next ten years and beyond. Already there would be 3,000 people in the UK’s major air hubs, including the South West and North West of England and Edinburgh, with almost 600 organizations across the country under GCAP contracts, including SMEs and academic institutions, according to UK figures. All those in their respective sub-groups within the companies will have plenty to do, for example, the twin-engine supersonic stealth jet is said to have a powerful radar capable of delivering “10,000 times more data” (!) than current systems.
Multi-billions needed
No details were given, at least in Tokyo, about the total costs, which are only estimated – and only because of these could lead to a currently rather unlikely “merger” of the GCAP and FCAS programs in the next ten years. For the time being, the UK government has already spent 2.3 billion euros on initial studies and development preparations, while the industry itself has invested a further 700 million euros in sub-technologies and wind tunnel tests.
Here for more news about Leonardo and here to further news from BAE Systems.
