Page 31 - PARIS AIRSHOW 2023 INSIGHT | GBP

B
A
T
M
COMBAT POTENTIAL
C
O
TI
A
L
N
P
O
TE
The trilateral Global Claesen, Managing Director, Future Combat
Air Systems - BAE Systems Air, said by com-
bining forces, the UK and its partners would
Combat Air Programme is deliver the military capability needed to over-
come fast evolving threats, share costs and
making swift progress ensure the RAF remains interoperable with
some of our closest partners.
By Atul Chandra UK Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace said the
next tranche of funding for future combat air
will help fuse the combined technologies and
expertise the UK has with its international
he Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), a trilateral partners – both in Europe and the Pacific.
collaboration involving the United Kingdom, Japan, and Wallace had said in July 2022 that a new
Italy, to develop a next generation fighter jet, is making combat air demonstrator would fly within five
T swift progress. The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) made years. Production versions of the next-gen-
a £656 million funding allocation in April to progress the design eration fighter are expected to enter service
and development of this aircraft. The inking of a collaboration by 2035.
agreement by UK, Japan and Italian industry partners in May
for the GCAP’s Integrated Sensing and Non Kinetic Effects &
Integrated Communications Systems (ISANKE & ICS) was also a Accelerated Progress
major programme decision. Just prior to the start of the Paris Airshow,

The UK has committed to investing more than £2 billion on the BAE Systems released additional details about
developmental work taking place to deliver
project up to May 2025. The development phase of GCAP is slated the UK’s first flying combat air demonstra-
to begin in 2025 with the flying phase to start towards the end of tor in 40 years. Test pilots from BAE Systems,
the decade or early 2030. Tempest is the UK name for the aircraft Rolls-Royce and the Royal Air Force (RAF) have
in development under GCAP. GCAP was showcased publicly for already flown more than 150 hours of the
the first time at DSEI Japan, earlier this year. demonstrator aircraft in a new bespoke sim-

The contracts awarded in April by the UK MOD, were made to ulator at a brand new facility, at BAE Systems
in Warton, Lancashire.
BAE Systems on behalf of British defence firms; Leonardo UK,
MBDA UK and Rolls-Royce will build on the ground-breaking sci- BAE Systems’ engineers have also used auto
ence, research and engineering already completed. More than coding to create safety-critical systems soft-
60 cutting-edge technology demonstrations, digital concepts ware in a matter of days rather than weeks, in
and new technologies will now be progressed to maturity by a first for military aircraft design. This allows
UK industry, along with GCAP partners Japan and Italy. Herman for rapid assessment of the flight control

WWW.GBP.COM.SG PARIS AIRSHOW 2023 INSIGHT ∙ JUNE 2023 | 31