As the Royal Air Force’s Typhoon became outclassed by enemy aircraft during World War 2,
it would be the mighty Hawker Tempest that would come to revolutionize British combat aviation.
Today, as the Eurofighter Typhoon reaches the end of its career, it will be a groundbreaking
Tempest aircraft that will bring the Royal Air Force to a new age of air superiority again.
The incoming 6th generation fighter promises to shake the world of combat aviation to its
core by delivering a warplane capable of conducting manned or unmanned operations.
Bolstered by a deep-learning artificial intelligence,
swarming drones, and direct-energy and hypersonic weapons, the new Tempest might
eventually spearhead the Royal Air Force’s incursion into the future of aerial warfare.
The product of a significant international effort, it is expected to enter the world’s
battlefields in 2035. And if Britain delivers a mere fraction of what it
promises, the Tempest could shatter the concept of what a warplane can do…
Replacing the Eurofighter
The Sixth Generation Tempest Fighter’s main objective is to provide a suitable
replacement for the Typhoon Eurofighter, the warplane developed at the end of the
Cold War by several countries to protect their skies from a possible Soviet attack.
The Typhoon Eurofighter, also known as the Typhoon FGR4 in Britain,
soon became the backbone of the Royal Air Force and the continent’s NATO forces. Although it did
not debut until the early 1990s, the Eurofighter showcased excellent performance and reliability.
The breakneck speed of aircraft evolution soon made the Royal Air Force consider
a replacement for the Eurofighter as the 4.5-generation warplane was already being
outperformed by powerful fifth-generation fighters such as the American F-22 Raptor.
The Chinese and Russian militaries already had their own 4.5-generation fighters,
and they were on the verge of finishing developing fifth-generation combat planes
which would leave the Royal Air Force at a clear disadvantage.
The Eurofighter had proved a capable aircraft, but its long development cycle and little need
for combat action meant that it was already old technology by 2011, when the Typhoon
first saw combat in Libya. The demand for a new modern aircraft was growing by the day.
Still, there was an issue. As the Eurofighter had been initially developed as an international
effort by Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Germany, the venture had resulted in tensions
and disputes among the participating countries regarding the high costs and the work each
nation provided to the country. If developing a new fighter proved to be an international
endeavor again, the project would risk the same obstacles the Typhoon faced years before.
Dream Team
Britain began developing and designing a possible prototype in 2015 to address the need for a new
fighter. And by 2017, the UK had joined forces with Japan to work on the project together.
In the agreement signed by both parties, the aircraft was described as: (QUOTE): “An aircraft,
manned or unmanned, whose prime function is to conduct air-to-air and/or air-to-surface combat
operations in a hostile and/or contested environment, whilst having the ability to
concurrently conduct surveillance, reconnaissance, electronic warfare and command and control tasks.”
Soon after, the Tempest program was officially named, and its specific objectives were clarified.
The program was meant to produce a sixth-generation
jet fighter incorporating several state-of-the-art technologies,
including deep learning artificial intelligence, unmanned flight capabilities, swarming drones,
directed-energy weapons, virtual cockpit helmets, and hypersonic weapons.
In addition, two billion pounds were assigned for the project’s initial phase until 2025.
The aircraft was initially planned to be developed by a group called Team Tempest,
consisting of BAE Systems as project leader and systems integrator, Rolls-Royce delivering
power and propulsion systems, Leonardo S.p.A., providing sensors, electronics, and avionics,
MBDA working on weapons, and the Royal Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.
However, the project had grown in scale by 2019,
with Italy and Sweden joining and several other European technology companies also
entering the venture, including GEUK, GKN, Collins Aerospace, Martin Baker,
QinetiQ, Spirit Aerosystems, and Thales UK, along with several British universities.
Many analysts have argued that the fighter's future is being put in too many hands at
once and that this could lead to disputes and disagreements similar to those during
the development of the Eurofighter, where France went as far as abandoning the project.
On the other hand, many welcome the addition of more nations that can
provide their expertise and funds to create a powerful new aircraft that
can face up against what is currently being devised by Russia and China.
The Design
The colossal multinational team has already made significant progress in the design
of the aircraft going as far as presenting a full-scale mockup during the DSEI fair in 2019.
The Tempest has been designed to be a highly modular fighter,
easily adapted to fit the mission and to have upgradeable components during its career.
One example is that the front of the aircraft will be able
to carry a cockpit module or an AI unmanned module according to the mission parameters.
Meanwhile, the mockup also showcases delta wings
and a pair of outwards-pointing vertical stabilizers, and will incorporate stealth
and swarming technology to deploy and control drones in real time.
The sixth-generation fighter is expected to control all its systems through an artificial
intelligence deep learning system that will completely command the aircraft in unmanned
operations and deliver vital support to a human pilot during manned missions.
The fighter will also have a Cooperative Engagement Capability, allowing it to instantly
share data and messages with other friendly aircraft and coordinate actions in split seconds.
Besides conventional weaponry, the Tempest will be armed with directed-energy weapons
that will provide an unparalleled advantage in future warfare scenarios.
In addition, the aircraft will feature an enhanced reality virtual cockpit shown on
a pilot’s helmet-mounted display using a Striker II unit. This setup will allow the
pilot to access much more information and options than a conventional cockpit allows.
The powerful adaptive cycle engine being designed by Rolls Royce will
use composite materials and an improved manufacturing process to be lightweight,
potent, and have superb thermal management while keeping costs low.
Also, the Leonardo Corporation has proposed a radar warning
receiver that is four times as accurate at one-tenth of the size of current units.
And to accommodate the S-shaped ducting behind its twin-engine inlets,
the aircraft will have a marginally raised rear fuselage segment to drastically reduce
its frontal radar cross-section, while its two engines will be positioned deep
inside the fuselage to minimize radar and infrared signatures.
Finally, the Tempest’s two generators will provide ten times more power than the
Eurofighter, with one of the generators functioning as an electrical starter,
removing the necessity of a mechanical or compressed air starting system for the engines.
The Future
As several nations across the world, including the US, Russia, China, and Japan,
race to develop their own sixth-generation aircraft, Britain’s design looks to be a
formidable competitor among the nations that strive to dominate the skies of the future.
By the time the BAE Tempest reaches the skies in 2035, aerial warfare will be very different from
what it has been in the past. Dogfights will acquire another level of complexity and utter
spectacle when they include swarms of automated drones, energy weapons, electronic warfare,
artificial intelligence assistance, and groundbreaking stealth technology.
If the Tempest Project moves along, the Royal Air Force and its partners around
the globe will be more than ready to jump into this new age of aviation combat thanks to the
incredible features being developed for the sixth-generation BAE Tempest fighter.
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