Team Tempest is preparing for the Outline Business Case 2 key gate to be signed off in 2024, ahead of the Full Business Case following in 2025 to take the programme through to entry into service in 2035. (BAE Systems)
The UK industry and Ministry of Defence (MoD) partnership responsible for delivering the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) – of which the Tempest future fighter is a part – is preparing for a critical phase of the programme, with a senior official describing the task as “a 10-year challenge”.
Speaking to Janes and other defence media at BAE Systems' Warton site in late May, John Stocker, Business Development director FCAS, said that with the programme having progressed well since being officially launched at the Farnborough International Airshow in 2018, Team Tempest is preparing for the Outline Business Case 2 key gate to be signed off in 2024, ahead of the Full Business Case following in 2025 to take the programme through to entry into service in 2035.
“This will be a decade-long window to deliver the Tempest capability in half the time of a comparable programme, such as the Eurofighter, which took nearly 20 years,” Stocker said. “That phase of the programme from 2025 to [delivering the capability in] 2035 is a 10-year challenge.”
BAE Systems is one of four primary industrial partners on the Tempest programme that is being developed by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO), Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), and Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), with the others being Leonardo, MBDA UK, and Rolls-Royce.
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