Future Combat Air System
The Future Offensive Air System was a study to replace the Royal Air Force's strike capability currently provided by the Tornado GR4. Initial operation capability was expected around 2017. The FOAS was cancelled in June 2005[1] and was replaced by the Deep and Persistent Offensive Capability (DPOC) requirement, which was itself cancelled in the 2010 SDSR.
However, in 2012 France signed an MoU to join the RAF's latest programme for an unmanned Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which will build upon the BAE Systems Taranis and Dassault nEURON demonstrators.
Under the terms of an Anglo-French development contract announced in 2014, parts from the Taranis will be combined with the Dassault nEUROn in a joint European UCAV.[2]
At the 2018 ILA Berlin Air Show, Dassault Aviation and Airbus announced an agreement to cooperate on the development of a stealth fighter jet as a replacement for French Rafale, German Eurofighter and Spanish F-18 Hornet, called Future Combat Air System (FCAS). A test flight of a demonstrator is expected around 2025 and entry into service around 2040.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
In July 2018, BAE Systems unveiled the Tempest as the planned sixth-generation fighter for the Royal Air Force.[9]
Options
The capability required may have been provided by any number of systems;
- New build aircraft, for instance the BAE HALO (High Altitude Low Observability) or BAE Replica demonstrator.
- Development of current aircraft – For example, a variant of the Eurofighter Typhoon or the F-35 Lightning II.
- Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — BAE Corax.
- Standoff missiles (Storm Shadow) launched:
- from next generation strike aircraft
- possibly from large, cheap non-penetrating aircraft (Airbus A400M Atlas)
- Mix of above systems
- BAE Taranis is the likely successor to FOAS.
Contractors
Two industry teams were competing for the contract, one led by BAE Systems and the other by LogicaCMG.
- BAE Systems team
- LogicaCMG team
- Leonardo
References
- ↑ "FOAS (Future Offensive Air System), United Kingdom". Air Force Technology. SPG Media Limited. 2005. Retrieved 2008-07-13.
- ↑ "Award of £120M Anglo-French Defence Co-Operation Contract". Defense-Aerospace.com. 5 November 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
- ↑ Roblin, Sebastien (2018-05-04). "Will Germany and France Develop Europe's First Stealth Fighter?". The National Interest. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
- ↑ "Airbus and Dassault Launch a New FCAS—without BAE". Aviation International News. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
- ↑ "Airbus, Dassault Join Forces on Future Combat Aircraft for Europe". Avionics. 2018-04-25. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
- ↑ "ILA: Airbus, Dassault cement FCAS pact". Flightglobal.com. 2018-04-25. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
- ↑ "Germany-France to develop Eurofighter/Rafale replacement". AviationAnalysis.net. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
- ↑ Editorial, Reuters. "Airbus, Dassault to team up for new fighter jet project". U.S. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
- ↑ "UK unveils new Tempest fighter jet model". BBC News. 2018-07-16. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
External links
- "UK Defence Procurement Agency specification". Archived from the original on 2005-02-05.
- New Scientist: Report of BAE Replica programme