Continued solid progress on the three-nation Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) was in evidence as the DSEI exhibition began in London on 9 September, with new agreements announced regarding the development of its sensors and engines.
At the show, the partners behind the sixth-generation fighter’s integrated sensing and communications equipment announced the formation of the GCAP Electronics Evolution consortium, also referred to as G2E. Italy, Japan and the UK will each have a roughly one-third stake in the venture, respectively represented by Leonardo and ELT Group; Mitsubishi Electric; and Leonardo UK.
“Over the last two years we have been working through workshare – of course each of us has corporate and national interests to consider – but we have reached a very good, balanced outcome,” says Andrew Howard, Leonardo UK’s director future combat air, and G2E interim general manager. “Now we are really going to get back to focusing on deep collaboration and engineering together.”
“As a consortium, we are ready to move into the design and development phase,” says ELT Group senior vice-president future business Alberto De Arcangelis. “The programme is accelerating work.”
That process will include joint integrated teams working across four areas, with Japan and the UK to jointly head radar activities, and Italy to lead on infrared search and track technology.
“We are making very strong progress against the challenges that GCAP is setting us,” Howard says. The programme aims to deliver an operational capability to enter service by 2035.
“We are very close to delivering a first funded proposal to Edgewing,” he adds, referring to the industrial joint venture tasked with delivering the future fighter. That will cover around 12-18 months of work.
And with regard to the in-development platform’s power and propulsion system, partners Avio Aero, IHI and Rolls-Royce are set to “transition from national contracting to fully integrated international collaboration, laying the foundation for the detailed design and development of GCAP’s all-new engine”.
“This development builds on the successful progress of the all-new centreline GCAP engine demonstrator,” the companies state, after they “signed an evolved collaboration agreement” enabling them “to engage directly with Edgewing”.
The partners say they are “delivering progress on the engine demonstrator, advancing technologies in additive manufacturing, cooling systems, high-pressure compressor design, and more”. Their engineering teams “have already conducted several trilateral reviews to approve the engine demonstrator design… and have initiated the hardware procurement”.
As an example of the advances being made, they cite a test involving “a revolutionary combustor developed with enhanced additive layer manufacturing techniques to create unique geometric cooling pathways”. That enabled “higher operating temperatures for the turbine, while allowing components to run cooler for extended range to enhance durability and sustainability across the engine’s service life”.
“We are creating an engine that will deliver unmatched performance for GCAP while also reinforcing the shared industrial foundations of our three nations,” says Atsushi Sato, president of IHI’s aero engine, space and defence business area.
Meanwhile, the chief executives of the GCAP International Government Organisation (GIGO) and Edgewing consortium also provided status updates at DSEI.
“We have got the best and the brightest from the three countries, are working very hard, and are making very good progress,” says GIGO CEO Masami Oka. “We are very much focused on the first international contract between the GIGO and Edgewing,” he adds.
Edgewing CEO Marco Zoff expects that contract to be in place “in three or four months from now”.
