Spar wrote:

Alfons wrote:

Ozair wrote:

Alfons, no such code exists. I am very familiar with the classic Hornet and this has never been mentioned by any operator. Nor is there a code for the F-15,16 etc.

As you wish, no problem.

What does "As you wish" mean?

Are you backing off from "I know from first-hand"?

ZaphodHarkonnen wrote:

I wonder if with modern design, analysis, and construction methods if you could design two related airframes. Two that are largely similar but differ on the strength and weight of certain components.

Especially if the majority of the value is going to be in things like stealth and avionics. Which will largely be the same between versions.

Kiwirob wrote:

Spar wrote:

Alfons wrote:

As you wish, no problem.

What does "As you wish" mean?

Are you backing off from "I know from first-hand"?

Watch The Princess Bride.

Underway in Europe are two high profile sixth-generation aircraft efforts: the Franco-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System, and Britain’s Tempest fighter. But will they converge? Defense News asked the chief executive of the European Defence Agency, Jorge Domecq, for his take on the future of these programs.

It’s quite possible the FCAS program by Spain, Germany and France and the British Tempest program will lead to a situation of two fighters. What’s your assessment?

We’ll have to see, but FCAS is not going to be just one platform. It’s going to be a system of systems. It will be a very complex program; it will take many years. It will be very important for it to be sustainable, that it has the economies of scale that are necessary. And at the same time, as we have these three initial member states signing up, I do not exclude this would bring on other member states as we go long.

What will happen with the Tempest project, I cannot say.

But as the person that oversees FCAS, you would like to see some convergence, right?

Europe would probably have to see convergence toward having a single system of systems, but as I underlined, it’s not an issue of platform. As always, thinking of the competitiveness of the European defense industry, we have to think of program sustainability. Is the next generation of combat aircraft sustainable with several systems of systems in Europe? I have my doubts.

...

The Spanish government has appointed Indra to lead its efforts on the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme with Germany and France.

The decision, which was announced on 6 September, will see Indra co-ordinate the industrial participation of Spain on the project to develop a next-generation air combat system, alongside Airbus in Germany and Dassault in France.

"Indra, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Defense and within the framework of the industrial development plan associated with the programme, will strive to ensure that Spanish industry participates as actively as possible in the latter and facilitate its access to opportunities for knowledge generation, business development, export capacity, the creation of technologies that can also be used in the civil field and high-value employment generation. The FCAS will generate high levels of knowledge and added value for Spanish companies and provide them with opportunities to develop exportable products beyond the programme," the company said.

The announcement that Indra will lead Spain's FCAS effort comes about three months after the country officially joined the project to develop a new fighter combat aircraft as part of a wider system-of-systems. The signing ceremony at the Paris Air Show in June came about four months after a letter of intent (LOI) for Spain's inclusion in the project to develop a New Generation Fighter (NGF) to operate as part of the wider the FCAS (known as Système de Combat Aérien Futur [SCAF] in France) system-of-systems. As previously reported by Jane's , Spain's initial contribution to the project will amount to about EUR25 million (USD28 million) out to 2021.

Jane's first reported in November 2018 that Spain was considering options for the future replacement of its Boeing F/A-18 Hornet fleet in the 2035-plus timeframe.

...

France’s Dassault Aviation and Europe’s Airbus have stepped up pressure on France and Germany to agree the next stage of a planned fighter project, warning Europe’s arms industry and long-term security could suffer from delays.

The two companies are the leading industrial partners in a project to build a futuristic swarm of manned and unmanned warplanes, announced by the leaders of France and Germany two years ago and expanded earlier this year to include Spain.

Dassault and Airbus won a 65-million-euro contract in January to develop the concept for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) but await a new contract to build demonstrators for interlinked fighters, drones and an “air combat cloud” by 2026.

Dassault Aviation Chief Executive Eric Trappier told a conference of policymakers last month that the demonstrator contract should have been launched in September but this was now slipping toward end-year. He called it “indispensable” to avoid any further delays in order to maintain the 2026 deadline.

No reason has been given for the delays.

On Monday evening, Dassault and Airbus amplified those warnings with a joint statement.

“If Europe does not move forward — and move forward quickly — on this program, it will be impossible to maintain the development and production capabilities needed for a sovereign defense industry,” the companies said.

The warplane system is expected to be operational from 2040, with a view to replacing Dassault’s Rafale and the four-nation Eurofighter, in which Airbus represents both Germany and Spain.

...

Ozair wrote:

Airbus and Dassault are frustrated by the lack of urgency of their respective governments to push the project forward. It frankly isn’t a surprise, funding was always going to be a struggle and with Germany still on the brink of recession a delay to moving forward with this project, which really is a comparatively insignificant funding line, is to be expected. It doesn’t bode well for the future though, it is generally very hard to recover time on these projects unless Dassault and Airbus are willing to spend their own funds and move the project forward, and I expect this is the first of many discussions on funding and time/schedule issues between the industrial partners and Governments.

France, Germany, and Spain are progressing well with the Joint Concept Study (JCS) for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS)/Système de Combat Aérien Futur (SCAF) programme, and are on track to launch the demonstrator phase in the coming weeks.

Speaking on the opening day of the Airbus Defence and Space (DS) Trade Media Briefing 2019 at the company's Donauworth facility near Munich, Bruno Fichefeux, the head of the FCAS programme for Airbus DS, said that the three partners are "well on the way" with the JCS that was began in January 2019, and that the demonstrator phase is on course to begin in early 2020.

"We are now well on the way with the Joint Concept Study in what is a new chapter for European air defence. Industry submitted its offers for the first phase of the Demonstrator Phase at the Paris Air Show [in June], and this will begin in January 2020," Fichefeux said, adding that the first phase of the demonstrator phase will cover the "first pillar" New Generation Fighter (NGF) aircraft, Remote Carrier (RC) unmanned wingmen and the networked Air Combat Cloud (ACC).

Fichefeux's comments were provided as part of a wider update on the FCAS programme that Airbus DS, Dassault, and lately Indra are developing on behalf of the German, French, and Spanish governments respectively.

"FCAS is all about answering the future threat environment," Fichefeux said on 4 November, adding, "The air-defence environment will be much higher in the future than it is today, and one 'super fighter' alone cannot answer that future threat."

As noted by Fichefeux, rather than focusing on developing a 'super fighter', the answer instead is to develop a system of systems with the NGF aircraft and supporting RC unmanned loyal-wingmen at its core.

...

French and German officials celebrated the signing of a new defense export agreement last month as a watershed moment, but political and industrial mistrust remains a wild card for the Future Combat Air System program — an envisioned sixth-generation fighter jet.

The export pact, which entered into force in late October with the formal exchange of government notes, is meant to streamline a contentious process that has clouded bilateral defense cooperation for some time. Namely, the agreement dictates that joint government programs, like FCAS fighter jet, be free from interference by partner nations when it comes to eventual exports.

The clause is mainly aimed at Germany, where politicians and lawmakers tend to scrutinize weapons deliveries to countries with known or suspected human rights abuses more heavily than their French colleagues.

...

Once the money begins to flow for an additional set of contracts early next year, there is a litany of questions yet to be sorted out. The fate of intellectual property rights, for example, remains unsorted, according to the analyst. In addition, as of late October, there was no agreement on Spain’s industrial work share. Spain is something of a junior partner in the FCAS project, though officials in Madrid have said they expect equal treatment as a full member of the trinational project team.

The Spanish government in the summer designated defense electronics company Indra as the national lead for the fighter program. The move angered Airbus, where officials were hoping to give their Spanish subsidiary a role that would satisfy Madrid’s demands for industrial participation.

Another potential point of contention has to do with military requirements for the future fighter. Perhaps the most prominent issue is that French officials want a carrier-capable jet, which Germany does not need.

Ozair wrote:

Once the money begins to flow for an additional set of contracts early next year, there is a litany of questions yet to be sorted out. The fate of intellectual property rights, for example, remains unsorted, according to the analyst. In addition, as of late October, there was no agreement on Spain’s industrial work share. Spain is something of a junior partner in the FCAS project, though officials in Madrid have said they expect equal treatment as a full member of the trinational project team.

The Spanish government in the summer designated defense electronics company Indra as the national lead for the fighter program. The move angered Airbus, where officials were hoping to give their Spanish subsidiary a role that would satisfy Madrid’s demands for industrial participation.

Another potential point of contention has to do with military requirements for the future fighter. Perhaps the most prominent issue is that French officials want a carrier-capable jet, which Germany does not need.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/11 ... e-fighter/

Interesting as well that Spanish workshare still isn’t sorted, nor their overall presence on the program given they want full partner status while Germany/France view then as a junior partner. Also some confirmation that Germany isn’t keen on a design that includes a carrier capable aircraft. Clearly that is going to take additional development and testing funding and I can see why Germany isn’t interested in funding that, especially as there is essentially no export market for that type of airframe.

art wrote:

Any absolute impediment to estimating the extra cost of developing a carrier version and handing France the bill, Dassault doing all the work? If there were any sales of a carrier version to any other country, France could recover some of the development cost. India night be in the market for aircraft for 2 or 3 carriers 20 years or so from now.

art wrote:

Regarding Spain, why should Spain not be a junior partner? I suppose Spain has leverage, though, in that t if France and Germany offer Spain too little the Tempest partners might welcome the additional funding Spain could bring to the project.

mxaxai wrote:

A recent study on people's opinions revealed that a majority of 52% of Germans are in favor of twice the defence spending, if it means greater independence from US politics.
Unrelated to defence, 60 % of Germans consider France the most (or second-most) important partner country, ahead of the USA (42%), China (15%), Russia (12%) and the UK (7%).

This might give FCAS a boost. Politicians may be less hesitant to increase funding if it is inline with public opinion.

https://www.koerber-stiftung.de/pressem ... gkeit-1926

Ozair wrote:

I don’t put a lot of stock in those kinds of surveys. If you had conducted the same survey in 2009 then the result would have been very different because Obama was President, a figure generally liked by Germans even with his waning popularity in his second term. Come the end of 2020 and a Democrat potentially wins the Presidency then the pendulum will likely swing around again. That is why looking at this from a standpoint of US politics is pointless. The relationship between the two countries has ebbed and flowed across the last 60 years but the underlying security and military relationship has stayed, and will remain, very secure.

mxaxai wrote:

It is a respectable survey, not your typical The-Onion-style survey. I agree that the opinion heavily depends on who happens to be president. But right now, there is strong opposition against further alignment with the US. That may change as soon as next year, but the one thing politicians care most about is getting reelected at the next election. So as long as this anti-american resentment continues (and I consider Trumps reelection quite likely), only a fool of a politician would publicly advertise in favor of US aircraft.

mxaxai wrote:

I think an F-35 acquisition during Obama's presidency would have been received relatively amicable.

…
Hoke said if Germany decided to buy the F-35 to replace its Tornados, that would mean the FCAS would no longer be feasible.

“As soon as Germany becomes an F-35 member nation, cooperation on all combat aircraft issues with France will die,” Hoke said in an interview with Welt Am Sonntag which can be found here.
The local news site says that the Bundeswehr is looking for a successor model for the Tornado fighter-bomber. One candidate is the F-35 but “that does not suit the CEO of the Airbus armaments division”.
Airbus manager Hoke sees a historic opportunity in the competition with France on the fighter jet. “Europe needs to define its sovereignty more clearly, and to clearly state that we need to maintain independence in defence and space” he said.
…

Ozair wrote:

art wrote:

Regarding Spain, why should Spain not be a junior partner? I suppose Spain has leverage, though, in that t if France and Germany offer Spain too little the Tempest partners might welcome the additional funding Spain could bring to the project.

Spain wants workshare for domestic employment as well as highly skilled jobs. I doubt Spain brings a significant amount of funding to the deal but Spain clearly see their position as an equal partner. Why shouldn’t they be a level partner? France has already shopped around FCAS participation with other nations as the carrot to acquire Rafale so clearly having partners isn’t an issue.

art wrote:

I don't see (perhaps my eyesight is bad) that Spain has a lot to add to the Franco-German project. Orders, yes, but in smaller numbers than the other 2. On the design and engineering fronts, can Spain plug a gap in the capabilities of the other 2 or simply duplicate what they already have? In terms of funding, I guess Spain would be the smallest contributor. In what way would Spain deserve to be seen as an equal partner?

Madrid says that the country is joining the initiative on "equal terms with France and Germany" and that the project will give Spain "leadership visibility" within European security and defence policies.

Spanish military-electronics specialist Indra has claimed the lead in a program meant to equip future European military aircraft with new electronic-warfare capabilities, according to a company announcement.
The project, named Airborne Electronic Attack, falls under the European Union’s latest batch of so-called PESCO initiatives, which are meant to foster collaboration among member nations in key military areas. Besides Spain as the lead nation, Indra said France and Sweden also are participating, as will Germany and Italy, though those countries were still absent from a roster published online by the European Defense Agency.

According to industry sources, the agency could hand out a contract to begin work on the project in the first quarter of 2020. The partner countries are expected to position their respective go-to suppliers to jockey for position, namely Thales, Saab, Hensoldt and Leonardo.

The EU’s airborne electronic-attack project could take on some of the supporting work for a manned fighter under the the Future Combat Air System program, a next-generation aerial weapon developed by France, Germany and Spain. That future aircraft will need sophisticated jamming capabilities, and the PESCO format could offer Indra an avenue into the major program’s work share at a time when the details of Spain’s participation have yet to be fully sorted out.

Indra is the Spanish national industry lead for FCAS, while Airbus and Dassault play those roles for Germany and France, respectively. Spain’s defense companies expect one-third of the business flowing from the program, an Indra spokesman told Defense News.
…

art wrote:

I don't follow your Rafale comment. What other countries might be inclined to order Rafale in exchange for FCAS participation?

While Dassault did not openly respond to the call for tenders, it offered for Belgium to collaborate on the development of the F4 standard of its Rafale, and a participation in the Franco-German Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program.

Safran and MTU have agreed details on the development of a next-generation aircraft engine to power the New Generation Fighter (NGF) for France, Germany and Spain.

The agreement, announced on 3 December, sees Safran Aircraft Engines of France and MTU Aero Engines of Germany settle the details of the engine development programme for the NGF component of the wider Future Combat Air System (FCAS)/ Système de Combat Aérien Futur (SCAF). This builds on the letter of intent (LOI) signed between the two companies in February 2019, which specified that Safran would take the lead in engine design and integration, with MTU leading engine services.

“In the framework of the contractual scheme defined by France and Germany, Safran Aircraft Engines will be the prime contractor and MTU Aero Engines the main partner for the first phase of Research and Technology (Phase 1A),” the companies said, adding that the two partners had also agreed on the foundation of a 50/50 joint venture that will be incorporated by the end of 2021 to manage the development, production, and the after-sales support activities of the new engine to power the NGF.

Known as both the Next European Fighter Engine (NEFE) and the New European Engine (NEE), the NGF powerplant is one of a number of core FCAS/SCAF elements to be covered in the first demonstration phase that is set to be launched in January 2020. The NEFE/NEE powerplant is included in the NGF itself, with the two other core elements comprising the Remote Carrier (RC) loyal wingmen and the Air Combat Cloud (ACC). This first phase should see an NGF demonstrator flying in concert with an RC (the combination of which is known as the Next-Generation Weapon System [NGWS]) while networked together in the ACC by the end of 2026.

...

• cooperation of crewed and uncrewed aerial vehicles, and appropriate human-machine-interfaces
• data links, sensor & effector fusion and swarming algorithms
• design of uncrewed aerial combat vehicles
• experience from F-35 operations (by LM)
• mission planning with distributed resources & swarming tactics

• German government & military
• various research institutions
• Airbus
• Lockheed Martin
• Diehl Defence
• Eurofighter
• Thales

The German Defence Ministry on Wednesday sent lawmakers new study plans for the Future Combat Air System, revealing that partner nation Spain has yet to be fully brought along to the next stage.

The government wants to begin five studies at a cost of $85 million, with the same amount coming from France. Officials late last year said Madrid was expected to contribute an equal share. The confidential report to Bundestag appropriators, first reported by the Handelsblatt newspaper, estimates that Spain will only join the next study stage in the third quarter of this year.

The delay is due to renegotiations on the implementing agreement for the project, sources familiar with the document told Defense News.

Airbus and Dassault are the lead contractors for Germany and France, respectively. The Spanish government designated Indra as their national prime contractor last summer, but a work-share agreement between the three companies and their subcontractor clusters has proven elusive.

Spain has lobbied to be treated as an equal partner in the project, both on a government and industry level. Agreements to that effect were signed between the three countries last year.

German officials previously planned to have the Bundestag’s approval for spending additional study funds late last year, with contracts to be signed in January.

...

France and Germany announced late on Wednesday that they had awarded the initial framework contract (called Phase 1A) for the demonstrator phase of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS).

This initial contract, however, only runs for 18 months and only funds preparatory work, as the Bundestag’s budget committee, which met Feb. 12 in Berlin, refused to authorize funds for the entire demonstrator phase, which was originally planned to end in 2026 with the flight of the New-Generation Fighter (NGF) and its new engines.

It is also worth noting that, according to the Airbus press release about the contracts, Spain will only effectively join the program in 18 months, for Phase 1B, despite having signed to join with great pomp at the Paris Air Show in June. ...

The Secretary of State for Defense, Ángel Olivares, has signed, with his French and German counterparts, Joël Barre and Benedikt Zimmer, a new implementation agreement for the full integration of Spain and its industry in the development of the Joint Concept Study of the Future Air Combat System (NGWS / FCAS).
...

The SCAF / FCAS, NGF, RC, NGWS Alphabet Soup?

To deal with foreseeable conflicts by 2040, the air assets that we currently own must evolve into a system of systems within the framework of connected collaborative combat: the Système de Combat Aérien Futur (SCAF) or Future Combat Air System (FCAS) in English.

Germany, Spain and France share the same vision for FCAS. Specific to each country but all interoperable, the national FCAS will have to connect the current national capabilities (Rafale for France, Eurofighter for Germany and Spain, drones, surveillance planes, air refueling, command systems) and the future capabilities: these will be open systems combining different assets working in collaboration.

As part of the development of their future SCAFs, the three countries have chosen to cooperate together on what will be at the heart of each of the national FCASs: the development of a new generation combat aircraft (New Generation Fighter - NGF), accompanied by drones (Remote Carriers) which will produce complementary effects.
The whole will be interconnected by a combat cloud. This joint project is called the Next Generation Weapon System (NGWS) weapon system project. It will be able to act either autonomously or in a network with air, naval, land or space combat or command systems ("NGWS within a FCAS").

It will make the most of the potential of real-time connectivity and data fusion. The full potential of artificial intelligence will be exploited in the NGWS, in particular for the benefit of the New-Generation Fighter (NGF).
The contributions of the other national air combat assets which will network with the components of the NGWS system (current airborne platforms, in particular the Rafale which will continue in parallel to evolve and will remain at the best operational level, our future cruise missiles developed with the United Kingdom, other armaments and drones of different types) will be taken into account from the start.

Test flights in a collaborative combat atmosphere was notably carried out with five Rafales, an AWACS aircraft and the nEUROn demonstrator, in multiple tactical configurations.

This latest campaign brings extremely rich lessons in the field of stealth and related advanced technologies

Airbus has brought together a panel of experts to explore the ethical dimensions of new technologies to be developed for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS)/Système de Combat Aérien Futur (SCAF) it is developing alongside Dassault and Indra.

Publicly launched on 14 May in conjunction with the Fraunhofer Institute, the commission of industry, political, military, scientific, religious, and subject matter experts first met in September 2019 and will be in place for the duration of the FCAS/SCAF programme.

“For the very first time in history we have a defence programme in FCAS that will be stood-up with an ethical dimension [at its heart],” physicist, information scientist, and panel member Professor Wolfgang Koch said.

With a new website launched at http://www.fcas-forum.eu, the panel of 17 experts will look at some of the vital issues surrounding the future use of artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy, and neural networks in particular with the FCAS/SCAF domain that will comprise the New Generation Fighter (NGF), Remote Carrier (RC), Air Combat Cloud (ACC), European Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS), ultra-low observable (LO) unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), and future cruise missiles.

...

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.

...

The 10 different system architectures for NGWS currently in the mix 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.

...

...

In the opinion of Airbus Defence & Space chief executive Dirk Hoke, Europe’s current trio of advanced fighters – the Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon and Saab Gripen – represent a wasteful replication of industrial effort – and all lose out by battling for the same orders.

...

International partnering spreads a programme’s investment burden, but elements of the Eurofighter set-up and the Airbus Defence & Space A400M airlifter serve as cautionary tales. Three can be a crowd, but a lack of agreement among four or seven involved nations can cause lengthy delay and spiralling costs.

Surely Europe can comfortably support two next-generation combat aircraft programmes? Indeed, those involved in FCAS and Tempest eye them as offering a real opportunity to power part of their nations’ economic recovery in the post-coronavirus era.

For an alternative view should the projects eventually have to merge, a unified solution could serve all 27 EU member states, plus the UK. Such a prospect could make the US-led Lockheed Martin F-35 programme look like a bureaucratic cakewalk by comparison.

In November 2019, Airbus’s defence unit also disclosed a more than decade-long research and demonstration effort into very low-observable (LO) technologies conducted as a classified project for the German defence ministry.

The company’s LO UAV testbed – or LOUT – platform has a diamond planform with a roughly 12m (39ft) wingspan and similar length.

The 4t-class, subsonic design features a conventional engine concealed behind a diverterless inlet, with twin intakes blended into its upper fuselage using a radar absorbent structure, and its exhaust nozzle is shielded from beneath.

Airbus says aerodynamic and anechoic chamber testing conducted from 2014 also assessed the signature effect of various sensor apertures and a cockpit transparency, and honed its LO techniques for landing gear doors and an internal weapons bay.

mxaxai wrote:

From another FG article (https://www.flightglobal.com/flight-int ... 33.article).
I haven't seen this prototype before, which was supposedly developed into a UAV testbed. A pure flying wing with a diamond planform ... very different from the FCAS mockup we've seen last year.

In November 2019, Airbus’s defence unit also disclosed a more than decade-long research and demonstration effort into very low-observable (LO) technologies conducted as a classified project for the German defence ministry.

The company’s LO UAV testbed – or LOUT – platform has a diamond planform with a roughly 12m (39ft) wingspan and similar length.

The 4t-class, subsonic design features a conventional engine concealed behind a diverterless inlet, with twin intakes blended into its upper fuselage using a radar absorbent structure, and its exhaust nozzle is shielded from beneath.

Airbus says aerodynamic and anechoic chamber testing conducted from 2014 also assessed the signature effect of various sensor apertures and a cockpit transparency, and honed its LO techniques for landing gear doors and an internal weapons bay.

Ozair wrote:

It has been posted here before, I think perhaps in one of the stealth threads last year. It is certainly some of the way to a stealth design but will need the associated systems to all make that same stealth advancement as well. Not sure how much value that will be for FCAS but perhaps for the associated unmanned systems there is some benefit.

mxaxai wrote:

It also shows that Airbus is not starting from scratch when it comes to stealth, although I don't know which of the project partners will be responsible for LO design. It would make sense if Dassault as the primary airframe developer would get the lead role there.

Dassault chief executive Eric Trappier has stressed that no more countries can be admitted to the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme being co-developed by France, Germany and Spain for fear of delaying the effort.

Under the programme timeline, the partner nations – and their respective industrial champions Dassault, Airbus Defence & Space and Indra – are due to fly a demonstrator of the planned Next Generation Fighter aircraft by 2026, a schedule which is “pretty ambitious”, says Trappier. Dassault is leading the fighter development effort.

...

Ozair wrote:

Dassault is sending a clear message that it doesn’t want any further partners for FCAS. Not sure how that gels with the French and German Governments who may want to have additional funding sources. Dassault obviously doesn’t want to dilute their workshare but it will be interesting to see how that matches with potential exports of Rafale in the mid to late 20s where you would think Dassault has to offer FCAS participation to remain competitive.

Indra has formally joined the Future Combat Air System (FCAS)/Syst?me de Combat A?rien du Futur (SCAF) programme as the national lead for Spain, alongside Airbus for Germany and Dassault for France.

The milestone, announced on 29 July, sees the company join the Joint Concept Study (JCS) phase of the programme that was launched in February 2019, and comes some 11 months after the Spanish government appointed Indra to lead its efforts on the FCAS/SCAF programme in September 2019.

“Indra has signed a contractual amendment that positions the company as a contractor of the Joint Concept Study, along with the national coordinators of France (Dassault) and Germany (Airbus). The French [defence procurement] agency DGA has signed as the procurement entity acting on behalf of the defence ministries of France, Germany, and Spain,” the company said in a statement, adding, “Indra thus cements its role as coordinator of Spanish industry in the programme and its representative to the industrial coordinators of France and Germany.”

...

Germany’s Future Combat Mission System (FCMS) consortium has charted the progress being made in developing sensor technology for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS).

On 3 November the FCMS consortium of Hensoldt, Diehl Defence, ESG, and Rohde & Schwarz reported good overall progress in its efforts to develop the future suite of FCAS sensors alongside its Spanish partner Indra and France’s Thales. In particular, it noted advancements in developing what it termed the 4π Meta Sensor Effector System (MSES).

“The FCMS experts [have] provided both a clear, forward-looking overview of the technological challenges, such as the 4π MSES, where 4π describes the complete volume of sensor space around the platforms as well as the effectors. Also well received [at recent briefings], some important insights into the operational requirements for the future system of systems from the perspective of an experienced fighter pilot,” FCMS said.

On its website, FCMS describes 4π MSES as enabling “the rapid orchestration in the integrated sensor-effector network, not only as a counterpoint to the ground-based enemy air-defence networks, but also to expected [airborne threats to the] FCAS and Next-Generation Weapon System (NGWS). In many cases, individual sensors and effectors will have to perform several tasks in parallel, for example, on the basis of multifunctionality. Electronically scanned [radar] systems or distributed apertures of passive sensor systems that can perform several tasks synchronously, for example, by means of electronic beam control and suitable resource management, pave the way for this.”

...

Who we are and what we do:
we calculate radar signatures with electromagnetic simulations and measure them in the high-frequency laboratory
we design, simulate, optimize and measure LO aircraft components
we are a design driver with LO for the new NGFD (Next Generation Fighter Demonstrator) fighter aircraft as part of FCAS (Future Combat Air Systems)
in the German part of FCAS, our department has the lead in the topic LO
...
In the position you will have the following tasks:
... Reverse engineering of foreign defense material (aircraft, UAVs, cruise missiles, multistage ballistic missiles) with respect to radar signature relevant characteristics and details.

mxaxai wrote:

Fluent german and english is required for all positions except for aerodynamics.

VSMUT wrote:

mxaxai wrote:

Fluent german and english is required for all positions except for aerodynamics.

English is the working language at Airbus, so not such a surprise.

mxaxai wrote:

VSMUT wrote:

mxaxai wrote:

Fluent german and english is required for all positions except for aerodynamics.

English is the working language at Airbus, so not such a surprise.

It is perhaps more surprising that fluent german is required. There aren't that many people in Germany that have experience in LO design.

art wrote:

FCAS workshare plan sparks German union concerns

https://www.flightglobal.com/defence/fc ... 55.article

mxaxai wrote:

art wrote:

FCAS workshare plan sparks German union concerns

https://www.flightglobal.com/defence/fc ... 55.article

I don't have access to the FG article but the key point is that the FCAS demonstrator is planned to be a Rafale derivative, built by Dassault. German workers' representatives have demanded that there be another, Eurofighter-based, demonstrator to "preserve knowledge and jobs in Germany" and to transfer FCAS R&D into future Eurofighter improvements more easily.

art wrote:

Is it realistic for Rafale to get the benefit but not Typhoon? It might be different if France was buying more Rafales while Germany was not buying more Typhoons.

Dassault is the president of strategy and development of the family-controlled aerospace and software conglomerate Dassault Groupe.

JayinKitsap wrote:

Does the accident affect the FCAS, was Olivier Dassault a leader or just a figurehead. This could take Dassault sideways for a while.

Dassault is the president of strategy and development of the family-controlled aerospace and software conglomerate Dassault Groupe.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/bi ... pter-crash.

Death of Olivier Dassault, the heir who had made politics a hobby

Marcel Dassault's grandson died on Sunday in a helicopter accident. MP for l'Oise, he had given up taking the reins of the family empire in 2018 for incompatibility with his mandate.

Airbus and Dassault reached an agreement that removed “the main obstacle” to launching the demonstrator portion of the fighter program, said the French Senate’s foreign affairs and defense committee in a Tuesday press release. The agreement, called “a major turning point” by the panel, could be approved by the German Bundestag by summer.

The accord, first reported April 2 by La Tribune, comes after months of simmering doubt that the FCAS lead executives would be able to resolve important issues for the program’s progress — namely, intellectual property rights and workshare agreements between French, German, and Spanish industries. Dassault Aviation leads the French industry portion of FCAS — also called SCAF — while Airbus represents Germany’s industry and Indra leads Spain’s participation.

texl1649 wrote:

An agreement for work share on a technology demonstrator today makes it seem quite improbable any IOC could be achieved prior to 2035, if past is prelude (Eurofighter, A400M).