U.K.'s Tempest Jet Fighter Program Embraces 'Digital Revolution'.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew

LONDON -- Three years after the United Kingdom and its partners announced the development of a sixth-generation jet fighter known as the Tempest, technology maturation continues with the program embracing digital engineering concepts to shorten its development timeline.

Tempest, also called the future combat air system, or FCAS, in the United Kingdom, is being developed by the U.K., Swedish and Italian air forces and their respective prime contractors, BAE Systems, SAAB and Leonardo.

Recently, Japan has joined the program in a limited capacity.

While the initiative started in 2015, it wasn't until three years later when the Tempest program came to light at the Farnborough International Airshow. Its concept calls for the platform to be either manned or unmanned and capable of controlling "swarms" of smaller drones.

Air Commodore Jonny Moreton, director of the future combat air program at the Royal Air Force, said the project is still in the concept and development phase.

"The purpose of this phase is to look at the progress, make an assessment. And then in late 2025, go to our governments, U.K., Italy, Sweden--and potentially Japan--and say, 'This is the program. This is what we can deliver. This is the timeline,'" he said at the Defense and Security Equipment International conference in London in September.

The respective governments will then make a decision on how to proceed, he added.

Meanwhile, some 2,000 workers are already engaged in development residing in about 300 companies or institutions, said Air Commodore Jez Holmes, head of the Royal Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.

Collins Aerospace, Rolls-Royce and MBDA are among the other major contractors involved in the project.

"We've made huge progress. It was really important from a U.K. perspective to ensure that we built up again those design skills that are so important to being at the heart of generating capability," Holmes said.

The program is embracing digital engineering, including concepts such as digital twins, along with additive manufacturing in order to sharply reduce the amount of time it takes to conceive, develop and produce a new generation of jet fighters.

This accelerated timeline is one of the program's primary focuses, said Moreton. "One of the goals is to break the 40-year cycle where something is conceived, developed and built and after it's in the air 20 years, start thinking about what comes next, and then wonder, 'Where did my industrial expertise go?'"

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