Artist’s impression of the RAF Tempest, due to come into service by 2035
The first thing to know about Britain’s flagship new fighter jet is that it’s big.
This becomes immediately clear when you see the full-scale mock-up that dominates a warehouse at the Warton factory near Preston, Lancashire, which is run by British defence giant BAE Systems.
And here, size matters. Because it tells you a lot about what the UK, Italy and Japan are planning for the supersonic stealth jet they are building together.
The three countries are aiming to bring the aircraft – which has been christened “Tempest” in the UK – into service by 2035 under an agreement known as the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP).
“This won’t be the final shape and size but, in terms of scale, it’s about the same,” says Jonny Moreton, of BAE, during a visit by The Telegraph. “Whatever GCAP as a core platform is going to be … she is going to be big.”
A bigger jet means bigger fuel tanks. That means more range and bigger payloads of explosive warheads.
But the size also means weapons can be stored internally – ensuring a smooth exterior that makes the aircraft harder to detect with radar.
At the same time, Tempest will be packed with technology allowing it to link up with other aircraft, drones, ground forces and satellites.
CGI impression: Tempest is being designed for long-range flights and to carry large payloads and tech – BAE Systems
All this suggests Tempest is being designed for long-haul missions deep into enemy territory, where communicating with home base may be impossible.
If Nato ever ended up at war against Putin’s Russia, experts say this means the aircraft would take off from a British airfield, fly to Russia undetected, destroy hostile air defences and then fly all the way back again.
Not only that, but such a long range would allow Japanese pilots to strike deep into the Chinese mainland in any future Pacific conflict.
Moreton, who is also an ex-commodore of the Royal Air Force, remains tight-lipped about whether these propositions are correct.
But with modern warfare happening at ever-larger distances, he concedes that any deterrent to Russian and Chinese aggression must be able to operate “at ranges that previously we’ve been unable to do”.
“You need to be able to get there safely, undetected and return home,” he adds.
So critical is the need for range that project leaders have suggested the jet will be capable of crossing the Atlantic without mid-air refuelling – something no Royal Air Force fighter has ever been able to do.
A Typhoon jet, the backbone of the RAF’s existing fleet, has a combat radius of about 860 miles on a single tank of fuel.
Meanwhile, the American-made F-35A stealth jet, which air force chiefs recently said they were planning to acquire, has a combat radius of about 680 miles. That is less than half the distance between London and Moscow, which is roughly 1,550 miles.
It means Tempest will be in a league of its own when it comes to British fighters, says Francis Tusa, an independent defence analyst.
“As the requirements have changed over the years, so have the models,” he says. “You can make your aircraft as stealthy as you like but if it has to be refuelled by a tanker then ultimately your adversary just needs to track down and destroy the tanker.
“So you need enough internal fuel to go a very, very long way – and stay out there.”
1707 Combat rangers
Tempest in combat
Imagine Nato and Russia did go to war in future – what does this mean for Tempest’s role in the fight? Tusa says in week one of the conflict, Tempest would probably have to go into Russia and attack surface-to-air missile defences and air bases.
Then in week two, when there is no threat from air defences, the jet can either be an air superiority fighter that loiters in the sky and takes out enemy fighters or continues in a ground support role.
To fulfil that role, it is expected to be able to unleash massive arsenals of explosive weapons on its targets – potentially twice as much as an F-35 can deploy.
Based on reports, Tusa says Tempest’s maximum takeoff weight could be “north of 30 tonnes” compared to Typhoon’s 23 tonnes. That is more than the Lancaster bombers used in the Second World War.
“It is going to be in a completely different league to anything we have ever built,” Tusa says.
The technology being built into Tempest will also ensure the jet can act as an airborne communications hub, even if contact with bases back in Britain has been disrupted.
1707 Scaling up
This means it can act as a central contact point for nearby friendly drones and missiles, as well as forces on the ground and satellites in space.
“We need to be able to operate at range, where our communications might be disrupted,” explains BAE’s Moreton.
“Therefore we need to make sure we have a core platform that’s crewed, that’s in a position that it can be the heart of the network if we’re unable to communicate back to home base for operations.
“It needs to be able to operate in an isolated environment.”
Automation push
BAE is part of “Team Tempest”, a partnership between the Ministry of Defence and industry that also includes Rolls-Royce, missile maker MBDA and Italy’s Leonardo .
Since 2023, however, the effort has been amalgamated with GCAP, with the UK, Italy and Japan combining research and development into a single programme.
The British team, led by BAE, is working on a demonstrator jet that will road-test a key piece of equipment – a vent system that will feed air to Tempest’s engines using an S-bend that wends its way through the aircraft’s insides.
This is vital to reducing the jet’s radar signature.
A trial has been scheduled for some time in 2027 and remains on schedule, according to BAE.
At Warton, the company is trialling new production processes that will be used to fabricate the aircraft’s wings and tail fins in the coming months.
These include additive manufacturing, a form of 3D printing where material is added instead of removed, the production of large, carbon-based panels and more extensive use of robots.
For example, reconfigurable robot arms are being used instead of specialist “jigs” that were previously needed on the production lines of older aircraft such as the Typhoon.
Jigs are tools that hold components in place or guide cutting tools during manufacturing and are often tailor-made for a certain stage of the process.
Using robots instead will slash the cost of making the jigs – which often runs to tens of millions of pounds – and could shave up to three years off the run-up to full-rate production.
It also means the factory floor is more easily reconfigurable, saving money for BAE at its facilities and letting the company easily switch to the production of a different product when required.
All this will help to keep vital domestic skills alive as the company prepares to transition away from making Typhoon to producing Tempest in the next decade.
That is still some way away, BAE stresses, with workers likely to be kept busy for at least the next 10 years by orders anticipated from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
But the development of Tempest will help to preserve Britain’s sovereign capability to make its own aircraft, says Richard Hamilton, the managing director for Europe and International at BAE’s air business.
“We’re one of a small number of nations that have the whole aircraft capability,” he says.
Richard Hamilton says UK has the rare capacity to design, make, launch and deliver aircraft – Phil Noble/Reuters
“That means we can design an aircraft, we can make it and we can actually fly it from the site as well to our customers.
“Not many other countries still have that capability, so it’s a freedom of action that our Government has at the moment.”
This is one reason why other countries are also queuing up to join the GCAP consortium.
Saudi Arabia is understood to be one of the countries in discussions with the three existing national partners, although it is not clear yet what level of involvement the Gulf nation could have.
Riyadh is currently a buyer of the Typhoon jet but defence sources say the kingdom is looking for a potentially weightier role in GCAP that would give it more influence over capabilities and a greater role in manufacturing as well.
But Herman Claesen, the head of future combat air at BAE, says the window for new joiners is narrowing, particularly given the brisk pace the founding countries want to maintain.
“To be part of the core programme today in the same way as Japan, Italy and the UK, because of the pace we’ve achieved and where we are today, becomes quite challenging and will have an impact which the three governments will have to either reject or accept,” Claesen says.
“It’s never impossible … we can make anything happen. But I see the likelihood as diminishing all the time, considering the pace we have on the programme.”
