Guest from the past
The concept of a new generation European aviation complex began to be worked out much earlier than one might think. Even if we remove the undertakings that took place in the 80s and 90s (roughly speaking, the legacy of the Cold War), there will remain many ideas that, frankly, could not be realized. Here you can recall the Future Offensive Air System or FOAS program, aimed at replacing the RAF drummer - the Tornado GR4 aircraft. The FOAS program was canceled in June 2005, replaced by Deep and Persistent Offensive Capability (DPOC), which was also later canceled. In 2012, France signed a Memorandum of Understanding to join the British program as part of the Future Combat Air System, an unmanned aerial combat system based on Taranis and Dassault nEURON technology demonstrators. Let us recall that these are large UAVs with the makings of strikers, capable of being unobtrusive in theory.
And here a more serious confusion arises, because the recently announced project of creating a Franco-German fighter is also called FCAS (in English) or SCAF (in French, that is, Système de combat aérien du futur). The cherry on the cake in this ocean of chaos was that France did not formally sever all ties with Britain, if we talk about the first Future Combat Air System, although a new European fighter is already being created without the participation of specialists from Foggy Albion.
But this is rather a formality. It has long been clear that the future Franco-German defense alliance will only grow stronger, being squeezed between Russia and the United States. At the same time, sworn old enemies (and no less sworn new allies) will do everything to keep the British away from their new developments. If you asked for an exit, then come out: this is the position of the current masters of the EU.
In this regard, Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier recently said something like this: “Brexit tends to consume the energy and finances of our UK partner, who is not always ready to pursue ambitious projects with us.” But these are details, because even last year, Didier Quentin, a member of the French parliamentary commission on foreign affairs, noted that France "has just abandoned a joint demonstration project on combat drones in the framework of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS)." The question, one might say, is closed.
Let's hit together
And now let's try to directly answer the question of what the Europeans are creating right now. Back in 2017, Airbus Defense and Space unexpectedly held a presentation of the concept of a new generation fighter New Fighter, which, according to the announced idea, will become part of the FCAS system. However, this was only a concept that appeared after the actual collapse of the Franco-British initiative.
Another thing is important: in April last year, French Defense Minister Florence Parley and German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen signed an agreement to start work on a combat aircraft project that will replace Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon in 2035-2040. Already in July 2018, the Dassault Aviation company in its video showed the first image of the aircraft, which was not very similar to the Airbus New Fighter. In the presented image, you can see a manned combat vehicle, which does not have vertical tail, as well as the front horizontal tail, which is characteristic of the "French". Such is the minimalism.
New Generation Fighter (NGF) was chosen as the conventional name for the aircraft, while the familiar FCAS or SCAF became the designation for the entire program. Recall that within the framework of the new program, they intend to create not only a fighter, but also new UAVs, as well as new reconnaissance, guidance and control systems. In short, this is the most ambitious European military program. Hardly anyone can compete with her in the Old World.
It is important to note that the NGF project does not stand still. The actual birth of the pan-European fighter of the future took place in February 2019, when France and Germany signed an agreement on the start of the conceptual stage of research work within the framework of the next generation fighter program. “This new step is a cornerstone for securing European strategic autonomy in the future. We, Dassault Aviation, are mobilizing our capabilities as a systems architect and integrator to meet the needs of nations and to maintain our continent as a world leader in air-to-air combat systems,”said Eric Trapier at the aforementioned event.
In short, the French confirmed the information about the leading role of Dassault Aviation in the creation of the new aircraft. This is important because they have experience that Germany does not have. The fact is that the Germans have not created their own purely national fighters since the end of the Second World War. Eurofighter Typhoon is a pan-European development.
And in February of this year, it became known that Spain had joined the development of the Franco-German fighter. The agreement was signed by Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles during a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. According to Robles herself, Spain "joins this project on an equal footing with France and Germany."
Sounds nice, especially when you consider that the Spaniards do not have fifth generation fighters. But equality, of course, is rather conditional. So far, New Generation Fighter is seen as a symbiosis of German money and French experience. Other countries will, rather, have the same rights that Turkey has (or, more correctly, had) under the F-35 program.
NGF: What's Next?
An important event, which took place after the signing of the agreement on the development of the New Generation Fighter, was the presentation of … another concept of a new generation European fighter. This is the British Tempest, in which Italy has shown interest.
A significant part of the presentation was the display of the full-size model, which the developers of New Generation Fighter cannot yet boast of. But in general, this project seems very strange, and experts do not exclude that in the future Britain may enter the NGF project. The reason for this is also, in general, understandable. To date, no single European country will be able to master the development of a sixth generation fighter, which can cost 50 or even 100 billion dollars. Britain simply does not have that kind of money.
Only a few very strong countries, from the economic, scientific and technical side, can create a combat aircraft of the future. And most likely, many states of the world will be represented in the project in one form or another. Another disadvantage for Tempest is that the combat aircraft market is not wide enough to accommodate several mega-projects at once. Therefore, either the NGF or the British aircraft will succeed. The latter, as already noted, is less likely.
