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© UK MOD
development phase in 2025. Prior to the start of the development have recruited more than 1,000 apprentices
phase, the industry partners will also need to agree the cost-sharing and graduates since the launch of the project
arrangements based on a joint assessment of costs and national in 2018. Team Tempest partners, BAE Systems,
budgets. Rolls-Royce, Leonardo UK and MBDA UK, had
announced that they aimed to hire an addi-
In July 2022, the UK MOD announced that it would unveil the flying tional 1,300 early careers starters by the end
demonstrator by 2027. Development of the demonstrator is under- of 2023.
way at BAE Systems’ facility near Preston in the north of England.
The flying demonstrator will be a piloted supersonic aircraft testing At BAE Systems’ new ‘factory of the future’ in
a range of new technologies including integration of stealth com- Lancashire, for example, the company is pio-
patible features. The advanced 6 gen fighter aircraft, is slated neering the use of advanced 3D printing and
th
to be operational by 2035 and will feature a network of capabil- autonomous robotics in military aircraft. It
ities such as uncrewed aircraft, advanced sensors, cutting-edge has used digital transformation to design and
weapons and innovative data systems. The UK is already assessing build a representative military fast jet fuselage,
whether it needs any additional capabilities, for example weapons demonstrating how innovative technologies
and uncrewed air vehicles. can transform the design and manufacturing
capability for Tempest. Commercial robots were
UK in the Lead adapted and utilised, and 65 per cent of the
This is the first time, that the UK will have developed a new fast jet parts were guided into location using auto-
mation. These technologies are likely to also
using 21st century technology and the GCAP will arrest the decline be used in the manufacture of the new 6 gen
th
of the UK’s combat aviation industry, which has not designed a new fighter.
fighter aircraft in decades. The UK’s combat air industry generates
£6bn-a-year and the GCAP could secure or create thousands of jobs Rolls-Royce Defence had announced in
in the UK alone, while keeping irreplaceable combat air engineering December 2021 that it would jointly design,
skills onshore for another generation.
build and test an engine demonstrator and
work is progressing well. The engine manufac-
A 2021 report published by analysts at Price Waterhouse Coopers turer is testing a twin spool demonstrator, which
(PwC) concluded that should the UK take a core role in a next features optimised engine start and is fully
generation fighter jet programme; it could expect to support an electric and accelerated. The new gas turbine
average of 21,000 jobs a year and contribution an estimated £26.2bn demonstrator engine, known as ‘Orpheus’ was
to the economy by 2050. There are already around 2,500 people designed, built and tested in under two years
are already working on the programme in the UK as part of Team to prove innovative technology developments.
Tempest and the wider industry. Beyond these partners, more than Its simultaneous twin shaft electrical gener-
580 organisations are already on contract across the UK, including ation provides the next generation of power
91 SMEs and 26 academic institutions. The Team Tempest partners
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