Here’s how Italy will focus on Tempest, all the funds
All the latest moves by the Italian government on the Tempest project. The in-depth study by Giacomo Cavanna for Ares-Defense Observatory
Italy is writing its commitment to the Tempest program for the first time since Minister Guerini signed the MoU with the United Kingdom and the Swedish aerospace industry for the development of a Future Combat Air System (FCAS) sixth generation.
In total, as described in more detail below, Italy intends to invest a total of approximately six billion euros for the evaluation, analysis, preliminary design and advanced development phases.
The Tempest family will replace the Eurofighter aircraft starting from 2035 and remain operational practically until 2090 and beyond.
The deadline for the defense committees to express their opinion is 21 December 2021 for the Chamber and 25 December 2021 for the Senate.
The Tempest Program
On November 9, 2021, the Government sent – pursuant to article 536, paragraph 3, letter b), of the legislative decree March 15, 2010, n. 66 (Code of the military system) – the request for a parliamentary opinion on the draft ministerial decree approving the multi-year A / R program n. SMD 36/2021, relating to the development of a complex and interoperable architecture based on a sixth generation air combat "system of systems" – Future Combat Air System (FCAS) (AG 327).
The multi-year program in question refers to the Italian participation in the trilateral initiative called "Tempest", consisting in the study, development, experimentation, qualification and entry into service of the first examples of a sixth generation fighter aircraft system – Future Combat Air System (FCAS) -, integrated with unmanned cooperating systems (remotely piloted aircraft or adjuncts), satellites and other military assets.
The new aircraft are intended to replace the Eurofighter fleet starting from 2035 (see below), with an operational life extended to the last decades of the century.
The project also provides that all the elements of the system are connected by an “intelligent” network, based on a dedicated cloud architecture (combat cloud), artificial intelligence (AI) and powerful new generation datalinks.
In this regard, it should be remembered that the classification of fighters by referring to a specific "generation" makes it possible to identify the different types of fighters that have developed from the end of the Second World War to today. For example, the subsonic straight-wing fighters with fixed geometry air intakes belong to the first generation (1945 – 1955) (e.g., the American Lockheed P-80 ShootingStar and the British Gloster Meteor). The second generation (1955-1960) is characterized by the placement of the aircraft's engines in the fuselage, rather than in the semi-wings and swept wing (e.g., North American F-100 Super Saber). The third generation (1960-1970) includes fighters with strong arrow or delta wings capable of reaching transonic or slightly supersonic speeds. The fighters with strong arrow or delta wing and variable geometry air intakes, capable of reaching Mach 2 speed, belong to the fourth generation (1970-1995). The Eurofighter aircraft belongs to this category of fighter outline of the decree in question (for further information, refer to the last paragraph of this work).
The fifth generation corresponds to those fighters developed starting from 1995 and equipped with very advanced technologies in the stealth field.
It should be remembered that the F-35 Lightning II is a fifth generation fighter, multirole (i.e. capable of carrying out all the missions of the aeronautical doctrine), with marked stealth characteristics (low observability by radar systems) and net-centric ( interconnection of all available communication, information and data exchange systems). In this regard, the Court of Auditors, in the Report on the general account of the State referring to the year 2020, points out that, "in 2020, 3 other aircraft (2 CTOL and 1 STOVL) were delivered out of the 90 planned (of which 60 in F35A CTOL for the Air Force and 30 F-35B STOVL for the Navy), raising the aircraft acquired so far to 18 (of which 14 STOL and 4 STOVL) and 4 (3 + 1) will be delivered in 2021. So far the costs incurred from Italy they amounted to 5,381.4 million euros (+ 935.9 compared to the 4,445.5 million euros spent up to 2019). Also including the costs for the Cameri plant (969.9 million) and the adaptation of the national sites (335 million), the cost rises to 6,686.3 (5,639.6 million in 2019) ".
With reference to the origin of the program, in the technical note attached to the draft decree in question, it should be noted that in December 2020 Italy, the United Kingdom and Sweden, in order to reduce the technological gap that distinguishes the individual European realities compared to world leaders in the aerospace sector, they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in a new combat aircraft system (Future Combat Air System Cooperation MoU).
In this regard, the Defense website announces that the agreement was signed by the Minister of Defense Lorenzo Guerini, by the Secretary of State for Defense of the United Kingdom Ben Wallace and by the Swedish Minister of Defense Peter Hultkvist. The Memorandum governs the general principles for an equal collaboration between the three countries and concerns all activities including research, development and joint concepting necessary for governments to choose the acquisition of an advanced aircraft system to replace the Eurofighter ( see below). The agreement will be followed by the Project Arrangements and the Full Development phase, currently scheduled to start in 2025. It should also be noted that the FCASC MoU, signed among the only European nations that know, produce and already use 5th generation aeronautical technologies , the necessary basis for the construction of future aircraft will make it possible to enhance the national industry, guaranteeing the growth of know-how in a prestigious sector such as that of enabling technologies for sixth generation aircraft.
Specifically, the Defense Staff (see technical note) announces that the system is:
- centered on a low observability combat aircraft (core platform), integrated into a network of air and space systems, even unmanned and / or autonomous, capable of supporting multi-domain operations;
- designed with open and modular architecture;
- based on all the evolutionary potential associated with artificial intelligence and Remote Data Processing, to take advantage of the maximum processing capacity of the big-data to be managed and, at the same time, to remain protected and resilient in a cyber environment.
With reference to the possible industrial and employment returns of the program, Defense, in pointing out that the program will involve large defense and aerospace companies (Leonardo IT, MBDA IT, Electronics and Avio GE) located in the national territory (in particular , in the regions of Piedmont, Campania, Lombardy, Liguria, Puglia, Veneto, Sardinia, Sicily and Lazio) also reports that the initiative will involve SMEs and Start-Ups in the avionics, sensors, communications, artificial intelligence, propulsion, materials, simulation, armament and self-propelled aircraft. These sectors, according to the explanatory sheet, represent a purely indicative and non-exhaustive list of those potentially called to contribute, given the transversality of the program, focused on highly innovative emerging technologies. The program will also interact with the Ministry of Economic Development, with University Institutes and Centers for advanced technological research.
In the opinion of the Defense, Italy's participation in the initiative in question will develop unique national skills with reference to those workers who will be employed in the development and production of the system. In this regard, in the DPP 2021-2023 (page 61), it is assumed that the project will accelerate the national adoption of technologies in the years to come by encouraging the prospects of a future "generation of TEMPEST engineers" – who will collect the witness of the precious experiences gained in the Tornado, Eurofighter, F35 sectors – and on which significant employment stimuli will fall.
In relation to the timing, the launch of the program is expected in 2021 and has a multi-year development with a duration of approximately 30 years (period 2021-2050).
The design time schedule is structured according to the following progressive path:
- evaluation and analysis phase and preliminary design;
- advanced development stage;
- Initial production phase;
- advanced production stage.
In the defense forecast, the weapon program in question refers to Mission 5 (Defense and Security of the Territory), Program 6 (General Planning of the Armed Forces and Military Supplies), Action 6 (Modernization, renewal and support of the capabilities of the Military Instrument), Center for Administrative Responsibility (CRA) General Secretariat.
The initial forecast burden for Italy to support the development of the program, i.e. inclusive of Phases 1 and 2, is currently quantified as approximately € 6 billion, at economic conditions 2021, of which:
- € 2 billion for phase 1), subject of this draft decree, financed with resources from the chapters of the investment sector of the Ordinary Defense Budget as part of the funds available under current legislation (Fund established by law no. 2020, chapter 7120-02). The report specifies that this financing configuration may subsequently evolve through the creation of synergies with the Ministry of Economic Development;
- € 4 billion for phase 2), which will, however, be contracted subject to the identification of the necessary resources from separate financial instruments of any future institution. In this regard, it is also specified that these subsequent phases will be the subject of separate, specific approval decrees pursuant to art. 536 of the Military Code (see above) and contracted subject to the achievement of the desired level of technological maturity as well as the availability of useful resources under the next financial instruments provided for in the Budget Law or specific ad hoc provisions. The report of the Defense Staff specifies that, in consideration of the priority of the program, the financial coverage may be further guaranteed / integrated using the resources registered in the mission "Defense and security of the territory", program "General Planning of the Armed Forces and supplies military ”of the State of the forecast of the expenditure of the Ministry of Defense, appropriately made available also by means of preventive remodeling / revision of other expenses, agreed with the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The "Tempest" program is reported in the Defense multiannual programmatic document for the three-year period 2021-2023 among the cards of the major programs expected to start (page 61), with the same programmatic profile of the allocations described above. The program is also reported (page 57), for an amount of 2 billion euros, in the proposal approved by the Defense for the division between various projects of the Fund's resources relating to the implementation of the Multi-annual Investment Programs for Defense needs. National set up by the Budget Law for 2021 on the State of Forecast of the expenditure of the Ministry of Defense, whose endowment is equal to € 12.35 billion over the period 2021-2035.
With regard to the contractual conditions, the explanatory sheet reminds that the process for the signing of the international implementation agreements between the partner countries following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is in the process of being finalized and is expected to be completed for half of the year. 2022, and highlights the need to ensure, through the formalization of specific contracts, already from the current financial year, the full operation of the research and innovation processes, also in consideration of the fact that the project, in the United Kingdom, is already fully operational.
The report therefore specifies that, at the moment, in the absence of a contractual act, only generally valid evaluations can be expressed for each contractual activity. The reference standards for public contractual matters are the special legislation dictated by Legislative Decree 208/2011, transposing Community Directive 2009/81 / EC, and the related regulation (Presidential Decree 49/2013) and, as far as they not directly governed, the provisions represented by the Code of Contracts (Legislative Decree 50/2016), where not derogated and compatible with the aforementioned rules and with the contractual clauses.
Eurofighter program
As reported in the Report of the Court of Auditors "on technological development and interventions in the aeronautical sector", the Eurofighter program represents the heir to a project dating back to the 70s which had the objective of carrying out (initially in three countries – United Kingdom, France and Germany) a new multi-role combat aircraft, replacing obsolete fleets, capable of competing with the most modern US and USSR aircraft. Thus the Eca (European combact fighter) project was born, to which Italy – which needed to replace its F104s – and Spain were subsequently added.
In 1983 France withdrew from the project, wanting to create its own national program (Acx Rafale) and a new agreement was therefore signed for the construction of a European defense aircraft "Eurofighter"; the project was renamed Efa, with the participation of the specialized industries of four countries (Italy, United Kingdom, Germany and Spain); the related feasibility studies were completed in 1985.
In 1986 the Memorandum of understanding (Mou 1) was signed in which the different phases of definition, development, industrialization, mass production and finally of support in service were established; then, with the subsequent additions / amendments to the agreement, phases and general principles for the distribution of costs and labor among the nations concerned were defined.
With the Mou n. 6 of 1997 "Production Investment and Series Production", the production of 620 aircraft was regulated, of which 121 for Italy, in three tranches, which became, with subsequent updates and agreements, 96, whose delivery is scheduled as follows: – 1 tranche – 29 aircraft (from 2003 to 2009) – all delivered between 2003 and 2009; – 2 tranches – 46 aircraft (from 2008 to 2015) – all delivered between 2008 and 2015; – 3 tranche A – 21 aircraft (from 2015 to 2017) – of which 13 delivered in 2015; – 3 tranches B -25 aircraft – the order has not been confirmed and the participating countries have decided, for the time being, not to exercise the contractual option.
In a subsequent Report, the Court of Auditors indicated a cost of approximately 19.7 billion for the Eurofighter, for a total of 96 aircraft.
As regards the aspects relating to the employment impact, the Court of Auditors reports that the program involves approximately 1,700 direct employees (of the Leonardo company) and approximately 9,000 indirect employees; there are about 90 related companies involved in the various activities of the Efa program. “It is therefore a program” observes the Court, “very relevant, not only from the point of view of national security, but also as regards the technological aspects and the economic and employment impact on companies in the sector”.
Financing of the Efa program
The Court of Auditors, in the aforementioned Report, reports that on the budget of the Ministry of Economic Development there are allocations, both in terms of multi-year contributions 7 (commitment limits) for which the procedure of the agreement pursuant to art. 5 of ln 421/1996, both in terms of annual allocations for which a different procedure has been adopted, through the issuance of accreditation orders to the defense officer of the sums requested by the intergovernmental agencies that handle the operational and financial management of funded programs. The settlement of the sums takes place following authorizations sent by the Directorate General of Aeronautical Armaments of the Ministry of Defense following a specific call for funds by the NATO agencies: Netma (NATO Eurofighter Tornado Management Agency) and Nahema (NATO Helicopter Management Agency) which the operational and financial management of the programs is respectively entrusted.
The "calls for funds" are based on the estimated expenditure plans, connected to the progress of the activities planned annually, prepared by the agencies themselves and approved by the competent intergovernmental bodies. Once the Mise has received the request from the Ministry of Defense together with the "calls for funds", it orders the issuance of accreditation orders in favor of the designated delegated officers who, by issuing payment orders, credit the funds to the agencies themselves. In attachment no. 5 of the Court of Auditors' report shows the descriptive sheets of the entire program.
Netma enters into contracts with the Eurofighter industrial consortium and directly manages the funds made available by the nations concerned. It therefore takes care of the operational and financial management of the program and has relations with the aeronautical industries of the four nations involved through the two consortia created by the same companies, called Eurofighter GmbH and Eurojet GmbH.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/ecco-come-litalia-puntera-sul-tempest-tutti-i-fondi/ on Sun, 28 Nov 2021 06:17:03 +0000.