Vergennes
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COLOGNE, Germany – The air forces of Germany, France and Spain have agreed on a set of performance benchmarks to help their governments guide the development of a next-generation fighter jet set to fly in 2040, the German Bundeswehr announced on Tuesday.
The document, approved earlier this month, is meant to help officials judge which features from a collection of currently 10 possible system architectures are worth keeping when the time comes to settle on path forward for the Next-Generation Weapon System.
That system, with the manned next-gen fighter at its heart, is slated to become the central element of the Future Combat Air System, the most ambitious and expensive weapons program in mainland Europe. As envisioned, each jet would be accompanied by a small fleet of attack and surveillance drones, or “remote carriers,” and all elements would be interlinked by an artificial intelligence-powered “combat cloud,” according to a project description.
The 10 different system architectures for NGWS currently in the mix lean lean in different directions when it comes to armaments, maneuverability and range of the main jet and its companion drones, for example, the Bundeswehr statement explains.
The three air force top officials – Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz for Germany, Gen. Philippe Lavigne for France and Javier Fernandez for Spain – also agreed on a “Common Understanding Connectivity,” a guide for connecting national systems into the future FCAS scenario.
The document will enable the program partner nations to “synchronize” their respective development programs, according to the German statement.
The industry leads for the Future Combat Air System program, Airbus for Germany and Dassault for France, unveiled a mockup of the future fighter jet at the Paris Air Show last year. The plan is to begin testing a prototype in 2026.
Earlier this year, France and Germany, formally kicked off the next phase of the overall program, with each government contributing with $85 million toward the development of technology demonstrators.
German lawmakers, who fear an overtly strong French industry influence in the FCAS program, have linked the project to progress on the Main Ground Combat System, another highly visible bilateral program aimed at building a common battle tank.
France has the lead on the next-generation fighter while Germany leads the tank project.
The German Bundestag’s strategy of keeping a close watch on the aerial program by approving only relatively small tranches of money has Dassault CEO Eric Trappier worried about being able to keep the schedule later on, French newspaper La Tribune reported last week. Speaking before a French Senate committee in mid-May, Trappier proposed a Franco-German programming law to ensure a more rapid development pace, according to La Tribune.
https://www.defensenews.com/global/...formance-benchmarks-for-next-gen-fighter-jet/
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