Tempest, what the head of the Italian Air Force will do in Japan
Air Force Chief of Staff Luca Goretti will travel to Japan in October. Focus on Tempest, the program for the development of a sixth generation fighter. And for the general, convergence with the Franco-German-Spanish FCAS / Scaf is not yet ruled out …
Tempest program at the center of the trip of the Italian Air Force summit in Japan.
The Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Luca Goretti, will travel to Tokyo next month, to discuss with his counterpart the cooperation between the two countries in the development of technologies related to sixth generation fighter aircraft.
“I was invited to Japan in October by the head of the Japanese air force to discuss joint programs. It will be an opportunity to share our vision and a common point of view, ”said General Goretti during an interview with Defense News.
Italy is a partner together with the United Kingdom of the Tempest program for the development of a sixth generation air combat system. In 2020 the UK, Italy and Sweden signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on the project. The three national industries include the main defense companies in 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). But the project could then expand to other partners. During the Farnborough air show last July, the United Kingdom announced the conduct of “joint conceptual analysis” activities with Italy and Japan on technologies to be integrated into future combat air platforms.
Without forgetting that in Europe also France, Germany and Spain are working on the parallel project FCAS / Scaf for a sixth generation fighter. And for the number one of the Italian Air Force, the Tempest and the Franco-German project could still merge .
All the details.
WHAT THE HEAD OF ITALIAN MILITARY AERONAUTICS WILL DO IN JAPAN
“The Japanese could tap into technology from the Tempest and put it into their FX program. We will understand it better when we know what the industry can do, ”the head of Sma Goretti told Defense News .
TOKYO JOINING THE TEMPEST?
In particular, the general also hypothesized Tokyo's formal adhesion to the Tempest program: "If a partner like Japan joins the program, it could be an opportunity to better understand each other's realities," Goretti commented.
In reality, Japan's entry on board the Tempest program has been talked about for a year already. In fact, we would like to remind you that at the Dsei show in September 2021, the industrial team's stand exhibited the concept model of the Tempest and that of Japan also appeared alongside the flags of the United Kingdom, Sweden and Italy.
Tokyo, which in turn is working on the development of a new generation fighter aircraft to replace the Mitsubishi F-2, has already discussed forms of technological collaboration with London, for example in the fields of propulsion and sensors.
IN THE BORN FRAME
However, according to Goretti, any cooperation should take into account Japan's operational area and the best way to exchange technology.
“Our operational sphere is centered on the Mediterranean and on our allies, which are NATO and Europe. This is our main focus ”, explained the head of Sma. "The development phases of the FCAS will be conducted in such a way as to avoid violations of the security of the NATO alliance", underlined General Goretti, highlighting that "NATO and Japan have different areas of strategic interest, and experts are working on the concept operational and how to share information safely ".
THE ITALIAN COMMITMENT
Meanwhile, the Italian Defense has doubled the resources for the Tempest program. On 25 July, the multiannual programmatic document (Dpp) for Defense for the three-year period 2022-2022 was published. This contains the resources allocated for the Tempest: from 2 billion euros allocated last year to 3.795 billion, with 220 million this year and 345 million next.
Unlike last year's document, in fact, Italy has almost doubled the resources of two billion euros, distributed in fifteen years, with 20 million in 2021, as many in 2022 and 2023, 90 million in the two-year period 2024-26 and the remaining between 2027 and 2035.
THE CONVERGENCE WITH THE FCAS / SCAF
Finally, the Air Force chief of staff told DefenseNews he believes Tempest and the Franco-German Scaf project may still merge. The project got the go-ahead at a 2017 meeting of the Franco-German Council of Defense Ministries, with spending to be split equally between Paris and Berlin, with their respective lead industries Dassault Aviation and Airbus. Spain then joined the project with Indra.
“These programs require a huge investment that individual nations cannot afford, so countries are trying to cut costs. It happened with Tornado and Eurofighter and it will happen again ”, underlined Goretti. “The French and the Germans have gone in one direction but we cannot have two platforms doing the same thing in Europe. It may not be economically viable. It is logical to say that it is very likely that when the nations have defined their requirements, we will see a convergence in a single platform ”, concluded the head of the Italian Air Force.
WHERE IS THE FRENCH-GERMAN-SPANISH SCAF AT?
In reality, the FCAS program is following a road of obstacles. France, Germany and the third partner Spain have been negotiating for months on how to divide the complex workload that would carry the project forward.
Therefore the contracts have not yet been signed because the French Dassault Aviation and the main partner Airbus, representing Germany and Spain, have yet to reach an agreement.
But the air combat system of the future (Scaf) "will happen": he reassured the French Defense Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, during a press conference held Thursday in Berlin alongside the German counterpart Christine Lambrecht. "Many things have been said or written in recent weeks," said Lecornu, before recalling that Scaf is a "priority" project.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/tempest-cosa-fara-il-capo-dellaeronautica-italiana-in-giappone/ on Fri, 23 Sep 2022 13:52:56 +0000.