The three nations’ sensing and protection leads are close to agreeing a commercial and operating arrangement to deliver the new combat aircraft’s on-board electronics
Defence industry leaders in the UK, Japan and Italy have agreed a trilateral Collaboration Agreement to deliver the concept phase requirements of a next generation combat aircraft for the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP).
GCAP is a strategically important partnership between the UK, Japan and Italy, which brings together the three nations and their respective industries to collaborate on shared military and industrial objectives in the delivery of a truly next generation combat aircraft in 2035.
The agreement between BAE Systems (UK), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan) and Leonardo SpA (Italy) reflects positive momentum and strong trilateral cooperation, and will involve the industry partners maturing integration, collaboration and sharing of information towards the next phase of GCAP.
The Collaboration Agreement supports ongoing discussions to set out long-term working arrangements and maturity of the concept and capability requirements for the next generation combat aircraft.
Herman Claesen, Managing Director, Future Combat Air Systems, BAE Systems, said:
“We have maintained a high tempo of engagement with our industrial and government partners in Italy and Japan since the launch of GCAP. The Collaboration Agreement signals the strong alignment across all three nations to meet common goals and objectives on the programme to deliver a truly international, next generation combat aircraft.”
Guglielmo Maviglia, Director GCAP Programme, Leonardo SpA, said:
“This trilateral collaboration on the programme, for the development of a next generation system, represents the flagship of the distinctive capabilities and disruptive technologies that the partners of the three nations will share, in an innovative way, for the success of the programme. Participation in DSEI London fits perfectly into our progress of the collaboration and consolidates more than ever the strong ties created between the partner companies of Italy, the UK, and Japan. In this context, we are particularly proud to be able to contribute to the future and the prosperity of the generations to come with significant implications for security and technological development, as well as in the field of research and innovation in the aerospace and defence sectors.”
Hitoshi Shiraishi, Senior Fellow, GCAP, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, said:
“We are truly honoured to be part of GCAP and will bring all of our considerable knowledge accumulated through previous programmes to the table. The Collaboration Agreement is one of the key steps to ensure our mutual success. We have already started cooperating closely with our UK and Italian partners and believe that our mix of cultures and diverse perspectives will contribute to the success of this programme.”
GCAP is a hugely significant programme for the security, political and economic prosperity of each nation and through effective knowledge and technology transfer
At the DSEI exhibition in London, the industry champions for defence electronics from the UK, Italy and Japan have announced that they are working towards agreeing a joint project delivery set-up for GCAP’s ISANKE & ICS domain (Integrated Sensing and Non-Kinetic Effects & Integrated Communications Systems).
The companies, Leonardo UK representing the UK, Mitsubishi Electric representing Japan and both Leonardo and ELT Group representing Italy, are assessing a number of alternative operational and commercial models. The partners have identified that a joint project delivery set-up will be the most efficient and effective way of delivering the programme at pace, as well as ensuring freedom of action and modification for all three nations.
This latest development follows the signing of an ISANKE & ICS domain collaboration agreement, announced in March, and moves the partners closer to the creation of a permanent industrial construct. To meet GCAP’s 2035 target, the partners agree that new ways of working will be required and have held intensive discussions to reevaluate legacy programme structures, infrastructure and performance metrics. The objective is to create a transformative new model of international business and technical collaboration that allows for progress at pace.
ISANKE & ICS is the advanced electronics on-board the GCAP combat aircraft, providing the aircrew with mission-critical information and advanced self-protection capabilities. A core reason why the new GCAP combat aircraft is considered next generation, the new concept transitions from the traditional combat air model of separate airborne sensors to instead provide a fully integrated sensing, fusion and self-protection capability. At the same time, the integrated communications system will allow ISANKE to operate as a network across formations of crewed and uncrewed aircraft, as part of each nations’ wider, multi-domain system-of-systems.
In addition to commercial discussions, over the last few months the domain partners have also made significant progress on the technical side of the programme, with the ISANKE & ICS subsystem passing a three nation systems review. As well as virtual working, engineers from Leonardo, Mitsubishi Electric and ELT Group have come together in-person on multiple occasions as the domain has progressed towards the
systems review stage. This key gate in the ongoing joint concept activity means that the partners have agreed on the high-level design of the ISANKE & ICS sub-system: what will the key blocks of the system be, where will they sit in the aircraft and what will they do.
Passing this gate has provided more certainty for the direction of research and development work and supports the new combat aircraft going into service in 2035. At the same time, all of the partners have progressed the development of a number of critical underlying technologies, including in the fields of radar, electro-optics and electronic warfare. The collaboration has also laid the groundwork for aligning the firm’s journeys of digital transformation as they prepare for more intensive joint engineering on across national borders in a secure manner.
The ISANKE & ICS domain partners represent some of the most skilled and cutting-edge engineering work in their three respective countries. Together, the partners expect to inspire and train a new generation of engineers and businesspeople who will be able to meet the challenging requirements of the next 50 years and beyond in the defence sensing and communications domain.
will help to evolve and deliver important sovereign combat air capability in each nation for generations to come.
Follow us on our Telegram channel