The French General Directorate for Armament (DGA)
– acting on behalf of the governments of France, Germany and Spain
– has
awarded Dassault Aviation, Airbus, Indra, Eumet and their
industrial partners with the contract for the Demonstrator Phase 1B of
the Future Combat Air System (FCAS).
The landmark deal,
amounting to 3.2 billion, will cover work on the FCAS
demonstrator and its components for about three and a half years.
It also reflects the determination of France,
Germany and Spain to develop a powerful, innovative and fully
European weapon system to meet the operational needs of the
countries armed forces.
The contract comes on the heels of
the signature of the industrial agreements supporting the
demonstrator Phase 1B by Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Indra and
Eumet as prime contractors of the programme and by their
industrial partners from the three nations.
Phase 1B continues the successful Phase 1A
demonstrators related R&T work and development activities, which
enabled the identification of key technologies and the launch of
the demonstrators’ developments.
Paving the way for the
development phase of the programme, the demonstration phase 1B
will allow continuation of flying demonstrators and required
cutting-edge technologies development and maturation as well as
project architectures consolidation, with in-flight demonstrations
targeted in the next phases by 2028-2029.
The programme is made up of a set of systems: New
Generation Fighters teaming with Remote Carriers and connected
through a Combat Cloud.
In order to meet the ambitions and
challenges of such a programme, an
industrial organisation has been set-up and built around
technological pillars. Each pillar is under the leadership of an
industrial champion acting as prime, working in close cooperation
with its main partners and leveraging each nations aeronautical
industrial ecosystems.
In addition to their prime role per pillar,
Airbus, Dassault Aviation and Indra act as national coordinators
to ensure the overall coherence of the demonstrators and the
overall programmes steering and work consolidation.
The industrial governance of the Phase 1B is
organised per domain as follows:
– NGWS Consistency, Demonstrations and
Consolidation with Airbus, Dassault Aviation and Indra Sistem as as
co-contracting partners;
– New Generation Fighter (NGF), with Dassault
Aviation for France as prime contractor, and Airbus as main
partner for Germany and Spain;
– NGF Engine with the 50/50 Joint Venture Eumet
-between Safran Aircraft Engines for France and MTU Aero Engines
for Germany- as prime contractor and ITP Aero for Spain as main
partner;
– Unmanned systems, Remote Carrier (RC) with
Airbus for Germany as prime contractor, MBDA for France and Satnus
for Spain as main partners;
– Combat Cloud (CC) with Airbus for Germany as
prime contractor, Thales for France and Indra Sistemas for Spain
as main partners;
– Simulation with Airbus, Dassault Aviation and
Indra Sistemas as co-contracting partners;
– Sensors with Indra Sistemas as prime for Spain,
and Thales for France and FCMS for Germany as main partners;
– Enhanced Low Observability (stealth) with Airbus
as prime contractor for Spain, Dassault Aviation for France and
Airbus for Germany as main partners; and
– Common Working Environment with Airbus, Dassault
Aviation, Indra Sistemas and Eumet as co-contracting partners.
