Closing the Gap

Last week, the Defence Ministers of France, Spain and Germany reiterated the key importance of the tri-national Future Combat Air Systems (FCAS) programme in an official ceremony in Madrid. Embarking into Demonstrator Phase 1B represents a significant step in our countries’ collective efforts to strengthen Europe’s aerospace power and strategic autonomy in the face of global security challenges. So are we on a good path?

Cause and effect

The so-called peace dividend after the end of the Cold War contributed to European prosperity and the expansion of its socially oriented democracies in recent decades. However, it also obscured our geopolitical perception and strategic focus. All too willingly, we closed our eyes to the rise of autocratic powers and unhealthy dependencies. We enjoyed cheap gas when Putin devastated Grozny and Syria and invaded Georgia. With the US providing security all over Europe and beyond, we massively reduced defence budgets and, thus, capabilities in our armed forces. A serious strategic omission. As one consequence, for example, Europe failed to develop its own 5th generation fighter jet, prompting many of its governments to look and purchase elsewhere. As understandable as these decisions are, they can create the next strategic risk: Buying non-European widens the technological gap and dependency on non-European policies and suppliers. Germany, the largest economy in Europe, seems finally ready to pay its defence dues. With the “Zeitenwende” (turning point), the German government has committed 100bn EUR to a special fund to mitigate the gravest deficiencies of a partly dysfunctional Bundeswehr (Chief of the Army: “We are naked”) and, in the course of the long-awaited and recently conceptualised National Security Strategy, announced its plan to ink the 2 per cent NATO defence target. This historical move is one of many needed steps in the right direction. However, with the dramatic military urgency caused by the war in Ukraine, especially Germany’s Luftwaffe spends most of its significantly increased budget for off-the-shelf platforms from abroad. Speed in supply and equipment of the German Armed Forces is paramount, for good reasons - a decision the new German defence minister Boris Pistorius can only be commended for. The obviously implicit question for the German aerospace industry is how it can contribute to and benefit from these purchase decisions, for example, by being involved in repairing and maintaining foreign systems. Procuring off the shelf must not accelerate a vicious cycle that further erodes European defence competencies and, thus, cements the dependency on foreign players.

A European Commitment

With a shifting focus of America, one of our closest allies, towards the Indo-Pacific and looking at China as a “pacing threat”, we are at a crossroads: If Europe wants to become more self-sufficient on the one hand and to become a more reliable and capable partner to the US in managing global crises on the other hand, we must seize the opportunity of this turning point and accompanying defence funds. Therefore, the joint commitment of France, Germany and Spain to developing their own European Air Combat System of the 6th generation is so important, both politically and industrially. We believe this backing is justified since Europe has repeatedly shown that collaboration is possible, and yields excellent results. European cooperation led to competent joint defence programmes like the Eurofighter - patrolling the Eastern flank of NATO, reliably intercepting Russian airspace violations; the A400M - proven again in the recent Sudan evacuation, and A330 MRTT - the most capable tanker aircraft of NATO.

Yes, for some of these platforms, it took long to fully evolve their intended capabilities, a direct correlation to excessive individual specifications of customer nations. These so-called “Goldrandl?sungen” (gold edge solutions) are not future-proof as they contradict speed, cost efficiency and scalability from the very beginning. Therefore, Mr Pistorius sent a very important signal when commanding: “Stop Goldrandl?sungen!” By building a European defence industry and technology infrastructure based on collaboration of nations, industry and research, we will be able to offer our customers innovative and capable defence systems. With consistent and harmonised specifications, export control regulations and political support of our home nations, Europe’s defence industry will be able to economically scale and become truly competitive - overcoming its greatest weakness: Its fragmentation and, thus, lack of scale. Admittedly not an easy endeavour - but the only way to overcome today’s and future challenges of Europe’s security architecture.

Pioneering technology

With FCAS, the next generation of combat air systems, Europe has a unique opportunity to catch up technologically with the US and take more control of its security - while being a better and more capable partner in NATO. We are building a comprehensive, cutting-edge system of systems, including a European 6th generation fighter that will be impressive in every respect: delivering farther reach and penetration, ensuring low latency connectivity and having much higher survivability through stealth and other technologies. FCAS will be a system incorporating the most advanced technologies.

Mesh networking, for example, creates a secure, resilient and consolidated network for all integrated air platforms. With the help of AI and machine learning, mesh networks can be optimised and reconfigured at the speed of relevance. Edge computing brings computing and data usage closer to the data source: Incoming data can be processed and analysed in near-real time, improving response times, ensuring low latency and efficient bandwidth use. It will allow our aircraft, e.g. A330 MRTT, New Generation Fighter (NGF) or remote carriers (RC) to process data from their sensors and provide real-time, actionable information to our pilots - faster than looping back to the command and control centre.

In combination, both technologies offer greater flexibility by enabling easy deployment and reconfiguration, allowing for changing mission requirements and contributing to faster, better and safer decision-making, taking even ethical constraints into account, which will enable our air forces to accomplish their missions and succeed in combat.

Lessons to be learned

Fascinating technologies for sure, but we must not underestimate their complexity. Managing the latter requires new ways of working for industry and customers alike. This will entail adopting diverse, agile methods for an effective MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach and fast iteration. Taking over 10 years to develop an aircraft, building it and then taking another 10 years to eradicate its bugs and evolve into the full set of intended capabilities will not work. Here, the defence industry has to change dramatically by entailing building ecosystems and working with start-ups. Furthermore, modularity, scalability, and interoperability will have to be hardwired in any development, allowing for fast integration of new software, complementary assets and third-party platforms, manned and unmanned.

A call of duty

FCAS represents one of the last opportunities for Europe to technologically and industrially close the gap to the US and other fastdeveloping nations. China, India, Korea, Turkey all working on or already having 5th-generation fighter aircraft of their own. For Airbus Defence and Space protecting Europe, its values, freedom and strategic autonomy is both our privilege and our duty - and we are proud to be given a chance to prove to the world that Europe’s defence industry is capable of collective ingenuity. And we are humbled by the responsibility this entails.