The International Aerospace Salon Le Bourget-2019 kicked off on Monday in the suburbs of Paris. He became 53rd in a row. The importance of this event can hardly be overestimated. This is one of the largest aviation salons in the world, within which one can expect the conclusion of multibillion-dollar agreements that can predetermine the development of certain areas for many decades to come. The event is attended by 48 countries, including Russia, which, alas, has little to boast about in front of European "friends". For example, there will be only mock-ups from combat vehicles. This is not least due to the sanctions policy of the West.
However, even without the Sushki and MiGs, the aviation salon will be remembered, because on the first day we were shown what many have been waiting for for many years. Namely, the appearance of a promising European new generation fighter New Generation Fighter (NGF), which became part of the large-scale defense program of the Future Combat Air System or FCAS.
It is sometimes also referred to as the “system of systems”, as this program includes work in a variety of directions and, ideally, should become the most significant defense program in the history of the EU.
As of today, the main aspects of FCAS look like the following:
- A new generation fighter.
- Unmanned aerial vehicles (which, possibly, will act as wingmen).
- Satellite constellation.
- New aircraft weapons.
- New methods of control and management.
This is all, of course, relative: specific plans may change more than once before the expected commissioning of NGF around the end of 2030. Now there are three active participants in the aircraft creation program: France, Germany and Spain, which has recently joined it. The leading role is played by the French company Dassault Aviation, and besides it, the responsibility lies with the engineers of the pan-European Airbus Defense and Space.
As previously announced, the new fighter will replace the Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon. Both in the air forces of the EU countries, and specifically in the French Navy. This is an important clarification, since at one time the disputes over the concept of a fighter quarreled Great Britain, Germany and France, so the latter went its own way, building the aforementioned Rafale, which, as you know, received a deck version.
What did they show us?
The full-size mockup of the new aircraft gave a lot of food for thought. Firstly, “minimalism” immediately caught my eye. Last year, the British presented a mockup of their sixth generation BAE Systems Tempest. And it was, to put it mildly, much better worked out in all respects and, in general, looked very impressive. The model shown by Dassault Aviation most of all resembles one of the "planes" of the circle of young aircraft modelers: it is not entirely clear why the economy is in such a serious matter.
Secondly (and this is perhaps more important), the appearance of the combat aircraft of the future is changing by leaps and bounds. We are talking about the evolution of understanding of the European fighter, which, by the way, can predetermine the development of the entire combat aviation of the world, as it was with the first-born of the fifth generation in the person of the F-22. The layout shown is very different from the Euro6 concept shown in 2017 by Airbus and, more importantly, from the aircraft shown by Dassault Aviation in 2018. If the aerodynamic layout of the latter was similar to the scheme of the American concept of the sixth generation F / A-XX fighter, then in the case of the new layout there is a connection with the YF-23. Recall, he received an integrated aerodynamic scheme with a diamond-shaped mid-wing in plan with cut tips and V-shaped tail. If we pay attention to the shape of the air intakes, then there is a very clear connection with the F-35 and the Chinese J-20 and J-31. These solutions are designed to minimize such a key indicator for a modern fighter as the frontal (and not only) effective scattering area (ESR). That is, roughly speaking, to make the aircraft as unobtrusive as possible while maintaining high flight performance.
It can also be said with great confidence that the machine will receive two engines and will be manned / optionally manned. This makes it similar to other sixth generation fighter concepts. Today it is already known that the French company Safran and the German MTU will jointly develop the engine of a new fighter.
Conceptual issues
A small amount of information, and a strange presentation give rise to a completely fair question: do the Europeans themselves want to get a new fighter? After all, it cannot be ruled out that both the New Generation Fighter and even BAE Systems Tempest became the reaction of the "Old World" to the Twitter activity of the current US president. And talk about "European defense sovereignty" will fizzle away with the election of a new American leader who will think more about his allies.
However, so far everything testifies in favor of the seriousness of the initiatives of the EU countries: it was impossible to imagine such activity a few years ago, in principle. Until about 2014, it seemed that the Typhoon and the F-35 would be the main European fighters in the 2050s.
Here you can “fantasize” for a long time, but it is better to give the floor to the CEO of Dassault Aviation Eric Trapier, who presented the layout of the new fighter. “The progress we have made in the FCAS program in recent months is remarkable. It will shape the most important air force program in Europe for the coming decades and will be a decisive step in building European sovereignty,”said the head of Dassault Aviation.
It is worth going back a little and recalling that although the first information about the decision of France and Germany to conclude an agreement on the creation of a new "six" appeared more than a year ago, the actual start of work began later. The signing of an agreement on the start of the conceptual stage of research work within the framework of the new generation fighter program became known in early February. Now we are talking about a joint industrial proposal to the governments of France and Germany of a new machine. “I am very pleased with the level of trust and partnership that we have created with Dassault already in the joint concept study, and now with the industrial proposal we are presented to both governments. The principles of our industrial collaboration include collaborative decision making, clear management tuning, transparent working methods, and general preparation and negotiation in this first stage of demonstrator training,”said Dirk Hock, Chief Executive Officer, Airbus Defense and Space.
According to the previously reached agreement, this stage will take two years. In general, so far the fate of the program seems to be cloudless. In this regard, one can recall the Permanent Structured Cooperation on Security and Defense (PESCO), signed by 23 EU countries back in 2017, as well as the joint efforts of the ruling circles of France and Germany to create a united EU army. Nobody says that NATO will become an unnecessary tool for Europe tomorrow, but it is becoming more and more difficult to stop the locomotive of the union, even despite the local successes of the ultra-right in the last elections.
