With the Tempest, Britain bids to lead the world in fighter jets

DEFENCE experts are a hard bunch to impress. But there were gasps of surprise on July 16th when a full-sized mock-up of Britain’s next fighter plane, the Tempest, was unveiled by the defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, at the Farnborough air show. One analyst, Francis Tusa, hardened by decades of foul-ups at the Ministry of Defence, called it “one of the single most significant weapons being launched in the last 25 years”.

It is certainly ambitious. It may even fly, although Britain has not made a fighter aircraft on its own for about 60 years. Yet in 2015 the government committed £2bn ($2.6bn), out of a squeezed defence budget, to develop a “future combat air strategy”, and the Tempest is a result of that investment. The consortium of companies that have designed the plane—BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, the missile maker MBDA and Italy’s Leonardo—are also thought to have spent hundreds of millions of pounds.

The Tempest will be a so-called sixth-generation fighter, to succeed America’s F-35 (of which the Royal Air Force has just started taking delivery) and the Eurofighter Typhoon. As such, explains Nigel Whitehead of BAE, the Tempest will not necessarily need a pilot; it is designed to fly as a drone if conditions are too hairy.

The jet conveniently fulfils the government’s immediate political requirements. Britain is beset by Brexit angst and worries about its role in the world. With the Tempest, it aims to maintain its position as a leader in defence aerospace and a “tier one” military power. The phrase “Global Britain” was deployed like a cluster bomb at the launch. The Tempest ticks the industrial-strategy box, too, preserving 18,000 jobs on the Typhoon production-line.

With the announcement, Britain hopes to have snatched a lead in developing the West’s next fighter. France and Germany agreed on a similar project last year—the Future Combat Air System, or SCAF—and America’s big defence contractors will have planes in the pipeline. But, says Mr Tusa, the Tempest’s timeline is more “aggressive” than those of its competitors, with plans to start production by 2030 and to be in service by 2035, even while the F-35 and Typhoon are still flying.

Britain looked to have been snubbed by SCAF. But with its more advanced, well-funded proposal, the country is presenting itself as an attractive partner for a European joint venture. Sweden and Japan have also been mentioned as possible partners. The cost of going into production alone on the Tempest would probably be prohibitive, despite claims that new digital manufacturing processes would reduce the expense. The F-35, for example, has cost American taxpayers over $400bn.

Such are the costs and complexities of hybrid drone-planes that probably only two or three sixth-generation models will be built in the West. With the Tempest, Britain is making a bold bid to claim a big share of one of them.