Leonardo and more, here’s how to work on the Tempest-FCAS convergence
Tempest, government agreement signed between Italy, United Kingdom and Sweden. Italy – underlines the Ministry of Defense – believes it desirable, as well as other countries participating in both Tempest and the FCAS project (France, Germany and Spain), the convergence of the two programs. All the details
Accelerate the Tempest program, the air combat system of the future of British initiative to which our country and Sweden joined in 2019.
Last December 21 "Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini signed a trilateral agreement for the development of the new Tempest weapon system together with the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Defense Ben Wallace and Peter Hultkvist of Sweden". It was the first to report a note from the Nova Agency last night.
The agreement certifies the trilateral collaboration within the program launched on July 22 by the national industries involved.
"The agreement will be followed by the Project Arrangements and the Full Development phase, currently scheduled to start in 2025".
And there is more. According to the note, Italy believes that "the opportunity to evaluate a possible convergence of the two programs over time" Tempest and the Franco-German-Spanish competitor FCAS is desirable .
All the details.
THE GOVERNMENT AGREEMENT ON TEMPEST
"The agreement, called Future Combat Air System Cooperation MoU (Memorandum of Understanding), 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 operate the choice to acquire an advanced aircraft system to replace the Eurofighter ".
"THAT WILL ENHANCE THE NATIONAL INDUSTRY"
The agreement, signed between the only European nations that know, produce and already use fifth generation aeronautical technologies, – continues the note – the necessary basis for the construction of future aircraft, will allow 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.
EMPLOYMENT EFFECTS
"In this context, a further factor of economic growth for the country will be represented by the involvement of small and medium-sized national enterprises and the Tempest program will also be able to pour out its beneficial effects on the employment aspect in the defense industry sector, in the Research and in Universities ".
THE INDUSTRIES INVOLVED
The three national industries include the main defense companies of the United Kingdom (Bae Systems, Leonardo UK, Rolls Royce and Mbda UK), Italy (Leonardo Italy, Electronics, Avio Aero and MBDA Italy ) and Sweden (Saab and GKN Aerospace Sweden).
THE RESOURCES FORESEEN BY THE 2020-2022 DPP
The Tempest program is among the defense priority programs, the note emphasizes.
"In the multiannual programmatic document (DPP), recently presented to Parliament, a first important line of financing for the Italian participation in Tempest was clearly identified within the Eurofighter program, to allow the concrete start of the activities, through the so-called transition" Typhoon to Tempest ”.
HOW MUCH GUERINI SPECIFIED
In fact, at the end of October, the Defense published the DPP, which does not actually contain a first tranche of funding for the Tempest. Unlike the English and Swedish partners, Italy has not yet defined which loan to assign to the new program, as also complained by analysts and industry experts .
But according to the Minister of Defense Guerini, the Defense Dpp for the three-year period 2020-2022 also contains the resources for the Tempest.
"The Eurofighters are identified within the operating program", explained Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini, during the hearing before the joint defense committees of the Chamber and Senate as part of the examination of the DPP.
WHAT IS WRITTEN IN THE 2020-2022 DPP
“The volumes of the F-2000 (Eurofighter) program – reads the Dpp – useful for this strategic purpose are estimated at approx. 742 million euros, to which will be added quotas for a further 760 million euros – to be sought in the context of consolidated synergies at intergovernmental level and in close collaboration with industry – guaranteeing full satisfaction of the national competence requirements for the phase of R&D, jointly conducted with UK and Sweden ".
UK COMMITMENT
Recall that the UK has already committed 2 billion pounds for the program launched in 2018, which aims to start production by 2025, with delivery of the fighter aircraft system by 2035. The sixth generation stealth fighter should replace the Eurofighter Typhoon from 2040.
AND THAT OF SWEDEN
Simultaneously with the announcement of the trilateral partnership, Sweden's Saab has revealed an initial investment of £ 50 million and the creation of a new 'Future combat air systems' center in the UK.
CONVERGENCE BETWEEN TEMPEST AND FCAS
Still in the context of the construction of sixth generation aircraft, the press release reports that Italy considers it desirable, as well as other countries participating both in Tempest and in the trilateral FCAS project (France, Germany and Spain), "the opportunity to evaluate over time a possible convergence of the two programs, to make the European product further competitive on a global scale, also to avoid the risk of competition between European groups, which is not easily sustainable and which would probably risk benefiting other regional actors with global capabilities, which are developing similar technologies ”.
ALREADY WANTED BY UNDER SECRETARY TOFALO
With regard to the European sixth generation hunting, this summer the Undersecretary of Defense Angelo Tofalo had already stated that the future is the convergence of the programs launched so far. That is the Franco-German-Spanish FCAS and the Tempest.
For Tofalo, the two programs must absolutely converge if “we want to go and create a true sixth generation product”.
HYPOTHESIS REMOVED FROM THE UK
But British officials reject the need to merge the Tempest initiative with the Franco-German-Spanish one. As the analyst Aurelio Giansiracusa, animator of Ares-Osservatorio Difesa pointed out, “London rejects the idea of merging the Tempest program with FCas for technological and industrial reasons. In fact, Great Britain claims that the FCAS program was born for different needs, including that of replacing the Rafale embarked on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle of the Marine Nationale, as well as replacing the Rafale of the Armée de l'Air, the Tornado IDS and any successors in the Luftwaffe for the nuclear strike. "
Finally, having two programs in Europe maintains "a level of competitive pressure on our sectors", Richard Berthon, director of the fighter aircraft acquisition program at the British Ministry of Defense, told AviationWeek : "This competition has been useful not dragging Europe in a monopoly of supply ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/leonardo-e-non-solo-ecco-come-si-lavora-sulla-convergenza-fra-tempest-e-fcas/ on Sun, 03 Jan 2021 06:00:40 +0000.