- Joined
- Sep 20, 2016
Germany and Airbus Defense and Space are working on the initial stages of a new program to replace Berlin’s long-serving fleet of the Panavia Tornado bombers and complement the Luftwaffe’s Eurofighter Typhoon air superiority fighters.
The Future Combat Air System (FCAS)—as the Bundeswehr program is called—would likely be a system of systems that combines manned and unmanned elements. According to a report in Jane’s, the Bundeswehr’s requirements are aiming for the FCAS to be operational in the 2030-2040 time frame. Thus, Airbus is focusing on the best technologies that would available for an aircraft that could be ready by then.
Link
"The German government asked Airbus to consider alternatives for a Tornado replacement that will be complementary with the Eurofighter,” Alberto Gutierrez, head of the Eurofighter program told my former colleague Gareth Jennings last year.
It’s not clear if the Germans will team up with other European nations to develop the FCAS or even if the Bundestag will appropriate enough money to see the program through to fruition, but Berlin does have the technical wherewithal to develop its own aircraft. The German aerospace industry has not produced a full-scale combat aircraft since the end of the Second World War, but the country has an advanced industrial base and could reconstitute such a capability relatively quickly.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/germany-getting-ready-build-its-very-own-stealth-fighter-19911
The Future Combat Air System (FCAS)—as the Bundeswehr program is called—would likely be a system of systems that combines manned and unmanned elements. According to a report in Jane’s, the Bundeswehr’s requirements are aiming for the FCAS to be operational in the 2030-2040 time frame. Thus, Airbus is focusing on the best technologies that would available for an aircraft that could be ready by then.
Link
"The German government asked Airbus to consider alternatives for a Tornado replacement that will be complementary with the Eurofighter,” Alberto Gutierrez, head of the Eurofighter program told my former colleague Gareth Jennings last year.
It’s not clear if the Germans will team up with other European nations to develop the FCAS or even if the Bundestag will appropriate enough money to see the program through to fruition, but Berlin does have the technical wherewithal to develop its own aircraft. The German aerospace industry has not produced a full-scale combat aircraft since the end of the Second World War, but the country has an advanced industrial base and could reconstitute such a capability relatively quickly.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/germany-getting-ready-build-its-very-own-stealth-fighter-19911