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tempest fighter jet the mysterious sixth
generation stealth fighter britain wants
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the united kingdom's ministry of defense
presented a command paper to parliament
outlining plans to radically transform
the british military in the 2020s
alongside significant cuts and
reorganization of the army the white
paper described a much slimmer but
modestly modernized royal air force in
the 2020s confirmed funding for the uk's
next generation tempest stealth fighter
program targeted for service in the
mid-2030s and notably declined to spell
out how many f-35 stealth jets london
intends to buy
the command paper reiterates whitehall's
intention to spend 2 billion pounds 2.58
billion dollars by 2025 on the uk's
future combat air system program not to
be confused with the similar
franco-german-led program of the same
name which notably includes the tempest
sixth generation stealth jet tempest is
being developed in partnership with
italy and sweden with service entry
targeted at 2035 to 2040.
the paper also evinces the hope of
partnering with japan which is
separately developing its own sixth
generation jet
in addition to low observable
characteristics tempest would feature
network sensors and data links adaptive
cycle engines which can reconfigure
themselves depending on flight profile
while generating ample electricity for
powerful sensors and directed energy
weapons and drone control capabilities
until later in 2020 there had been
mounting doubts that the uk defense
budget could spare the funding to
properly develop tempest which likely
will entail 25 billion pounds at a
minimum
but with the 2 billion pounds seated the
program will acquire momentum that may
prove difficult to reverse
one motivating factor tempest may
represent the uk's only hope to retain
an aerospace industrial base capable of
independently developing a jet fighter
tempest aside the british military
currently relies on lockheed f-35
lightning ii stealth jets for strike and
reconnaissance missions against
adversaries with modern air defense
systems
additionally the uk is receiving an
order of 48 f-35b stealth jump jets
these aircraft will be flown by the
royal air force's 617 squadron in the
royal navy's fleet air arm 809 naval air
squadron off the decks of the royal
navy's two queen elizabeth class
aircraft carriers
but as they will not be ready for
operational deployment until 2023
meanwhile the queen elizabeth is
deploying with u.s marine corps f-35b
units on board
originally london envisioned a total
order of 138 f-35s including possibly
cheaper land based f-35a mode
but the uk's commitment to that number
has shrunk as evidence of the f-35s high
operating costs has mounted
the command paper occasionally promises
to grow the f-35 force increasing the
fleet size beyond the 48 aircraft that
we have already ordered
grow yes but by how much currently the
entire f-35 jet fleet appears dedicated
to either training or carrier-based
operations leaving few free for
land-based deployments
unfortunately the british military
restructuring is partly premised on
leveraging stealthy deep reconnaissance
capabilities offered by the f-35 fighter
jet but that doesn't work if british
lightning are mostly dedicated to
supporting occasional carrier patrols in
the pacific ocean
regardless the command paper states the
ministry of defense will integrate more
uk weapons onto lightning 2 and invest
to ensure that its software and
capability are updated alongside the
rest of the global f-35 fleet
the document also makes an unsurprising
commitment to fully upgrading british
f-35 jets with the expensive block 4
upgrade which will coincidentally enable
employment of country-specific weaponry
on the f-35 jets
for the uk that includes the spear
cruise missiles in the highly lethal
meteor beyond visual range air-to-air
missile
the white paper also commits to
completing the development of spear
capability 3 an air launched cruise
missile with a range of 85 miles in a
built-in multi-mode seeker radar
infrared and laser allowing it to
autonomously acquire and home in on
moving targets
an electronic attack variant of spears
serving as both a jamming and decoy
system is also in the works
currently the royal air force's core
combat strength comes from its typhoon
non-stealth multirole fighters
more agile than the strike-oriented f-35
jet and even most u.s non-stealth jets
the typhoon's chief shortcoming is its
lack of world-class active
electronically scanned array radar
that's set to change as the ministry of
defense integrates the ecrs mark ii
radar on its 40 most advanced typhoon
tranche 3 jets
the new radar will allow typhoons to
detect more targets at greater distances
quickly integrate threat library updates
and simultaneously scan for both air and
ground targets while blinding threats
with high power jamming
on the flip side however the royal air
force will retire its earlier limited
capability typhoon tranche one jets in
2025
that will leave the royal air force with
107 operational tranche two and three
typhoons in seven squadrons doing most
of the legwork until tempest enter
service in 2035 at the earliest
outside flashy manned combat aircraft
the ministry of defense is retiring
older platforms to afford smaller fleets
of newer types maintaining capability
but generally resulting in decreased
capacity
for example the uk's 5e 3d sentry
airborne early warning aircraft with
rotating pizza dish radars in favor of
only three new boeing e7 wedgetail
aircraft based in the 737 airliner due
to enter service in 2023
the wedgetail is certainly a trade-up
particularly its capability to track
fast moving threats with low radar cross
sections like stealth fighters or cruise
missiles
but three aircraft is too few to provide
routine availability when factoring in
maintenance and servicing realities
the air mobility fleet will also shrink
as it lets go of 14 c 130 j hercules
transport aircraft just as it completes
reception of 22a 400m atlas transports
the atlases boasts superior payload
40.75 tons versus 21 tons on the c130j30
but it still amounts to a net decrease
in capacity
finally the royal air force and royal
navy will phase out their hawk t1 jet
trainers which entered service in 1976
the t1 served primarily in number 100
squadron is aggressor aircraft mock
opponents as well as in the red arrows
aerobatic teams
trainees will make do with greater use
of simulator training and 28 remaining
hawk t2 advanced jet trainers which
entered service in 2009 featuring
digital glass flight computers with
enhanced training software new engines
and redesigned aerodynamic surfaces
fortunately the royal air force is
sticking to its buy of nine capable p8
maritime patrol planes and replacing its
older chinook heavy transport
helicopters with the latest ch-47f g
models
but one fleet is set to notably grow the
uk's armed drones or ucavs
the royal air force plans to replace its
current fleet of 10 mq-9 reapers in two
squadrons with 16 specially tailored
mq-9b protector rg ones which will debut
in 2023 in a third ucav squadron
the protector boasts improved range and
endurance de-icing capability
compatibility with british brimstone
missiles and certification to operate
over european airspace thanks to the
detect and avoid capability to avoid
collisions with civil aviation
while not so cheap as to be expendable
the protectors are more cost efficient
to operate per flight hour than manned
combat aircraft for lengthy surveillance
and strike missions against enemies that
lack air defense capability
the growth of the drone fleet therefore
will economize on the more expensive
flight hours of typhoons and
jets
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