Indra formally joins FCAS alongside Airbus, Dassault

Indra has formally joined the Future Combat Air System (FCAS)/Syst?me de Combat A?rien du Futur (SCAF) programme as the national lead for Spain, alongside Airbus for Germany and Dassault for France.

A full-scale mock-up of the New Generation Fighter concept was showcased by Dassault on the opening day of the Paris Air Show 2019. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)

The milestone, announced on 29 July, sees the company join the Joint Concept Study (JCS) phase of the programme that was launched in February 2019, and comes some 11 months after the Spanish government appointed Indra to lead its efforts on the FCAS/SCAF programme in September 2019.

“Indra has signed a contractual amendment that positions the company as a contractor of the Joint Concept Study, along with the national coordinators of France (Dassault) and Germany (Airbus). The French [defence procurement] agency DGA has signed as the procurement entity acting on behalf of the defence ministries of France, Germany, and Spain,” the company said in a statement, adding, “Indra thus cements its role as coordinator of Spanish industry in the programme and its representative to the industrial coordinators of France and Germany.”

As noted in its announcement, Indra’s formal introduction into the FCAS/SCAF JCS as Spain’s national lead paves the way for the inclusion of other national companies, such as Airbus Spain, ITP Aero and SATNUS.

Its inclusion in the JCS phase will see Indra join the effort to investigate and define system capabilities and common architecture for the Next-Generation Weapon System (NGWS) that comprises the New Generation Fighter (NGF) and Remote Carrier (RC) unmanned ‘loyal wingmen’, as well as the networked Air Combat Cloud (ACC). This NGWS is the first of eight ‘pillars’ of the FCAS/SCAF programme.