Phase IB Addresses Technology Maturation
In a statement issued on 13 December, MBDA “welcomes the industrial agreement recently finalised to prepare the Future Air Combat System (FCAS) […] Following the first phases of SCAF work, the signing of this agreement is a change in scale for this programme and lays the foundations for a large-scale European industrial partnership.”
Phase 1B is primarily a phase of technological maturation. In co-operation with partners Airbus Defense and Space GmbH and the Spanish consortium SATNUS (consisting of SENER, GMV and Tecnobit), MBDA will design remote carrier demonstrators and conduct experiments in connected collaborative combat, both simulated and in-flight. In particular, MBDA will be responsible for the demonstrator of remote carriers that can be fired from combat aircraft.
FCAS will be much more than an aircraft – it will be a system of systems, capable of collaborative air combat. With its associated technological innovations, it will engender a revolution in concepts of operations. As the leader in effects management, MBDA will principally develop new effectors, the remote carriers – multipliers of the tactical options available to our armed forces. Remote carriers will force adversaries to reveal themselves, will disrupt them, confuse them and/or saturate them to neutralise the threats they pose, which continue to become ever more effective. Capable of operating in packs or individually, remote carriers will cover all areas of combat, from air combat, to maritime operations, and ground strikes.
