Late in 2022, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Italy issued a joint declaration outlining their intention to work together to create a sixth-generation fighter. The joint plan, called the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), is expected to debut an airframe in 2035.
If everything goes according to plan, GCAP will be the most extensive joint effort between Japan and Europe in military aviation history.
According to the BBC, the emerging sixth-generation Tempest will eventually replace Britain’s fleet of aging FGR4 Typhoon fighters.
The goal of both the Tempest and the Next Generation Air Dominance programs of the United States Air Force is to provide a more competent and deadly platform than the current fifth-generation fighters.
The origin of GCAP
Although the final decision to merge Italian, Japanese, and British efforts to design a sixth-generation airframe was made in 2022, the concept for a new jet was conceived many years prior.
In 2018, the British Ministry of Defense released its air strategy priorities, which included exploring potential overseas cooperation and cost savings and continuing research into potential Typhoon replacement programs.
According to the United Kingdom’s Combat Air Strategy, it is necessary to field “an aircraft, manned or unmanned, whose primary function is to carry out air-to-air and/or air-to-surface combat operations in a hostile and/or contested environment, while as long as it has the capacity to simultaneously perform surveillance, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and command and control tasks.”
In 2021, a nearly $350 million deal was closed between the UK, Japan, and Italy to develop the Tempest fighter.
India and Sweden could also join the collaborative effort. Although Britain’s BAE Systems is the prime contractor for the sixth-generation fighter, Rolls-Royce, Leonardo UK, and MBDA UK are also involved in development and production.
What we know about the Tempest platform
AI virtual cockpit pilots are expected to fly the Tempest aircraft with the help of a virtual co-pilot. Pilots will apparently be able to customize every inch of the cockpit around them, similar to the virtual reality displays on the F-35 Lightning II.
In addition, the new airframe would fly accompanied by a fleet of unmanned aircraft, called wingman drones, similar to the Russian plan for the Su-57 fighter. These drones could give Tempests greater flight range.
These drones could give Tempest fighters greater sensor range and could even attack targets on behalf of the aircraft.
It is anticipated that Tempest will have cutting-edge radar technology, such as a multi-purpose radio frequency system for monitoring massive volumes of data.
It is not the only collaboration.
A similar next-generation fighter program is already in the works, so while this cooperative effort to design and build a cutting-edge fighter may seem novel, it is not. Future Combat Air Systems development is already underway in Germany, Spain, and France.
It is projected that by 2027, a prototype fighter will have successfully completed its first test flight. The Global Combat Air Program needs to speed up the Tempest’s production timeline if it intends to create the first formidable sixth-generation fighter in the air.
