Britain and Japan have announced plans to develop a future fighter jet engine demonstrator and have agreed to explore further combat air technologies.
Work on the joint engine demonstrator will kickstart early next year, with the UK investing an initial £30 million in planning, digital designs and “innovative manufacturing developments”.
The Ministry of Defence say that the work will be led by industry from the two countries, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and IHI in Japan, and Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems in the UK.
In addition to working together on a new jet engine for their future fighter jets (the British Tempest and Japanese F-X), Britain is also working with Japan on their ‘Joint New Air-to-Air Missile’ programme.
“A further £200 million of UK funding is expected to go towards developing a full-scale demonstrator power system, supporting hundreds of highly skilled jobs, including many at Rolls-Royce’s Filton facility in Bristol. Over the next four years, the UK is investing more than £2 billion into its major national and international endeavour to design a world-leading Future Combat Air System. In parallel, through its F-X programme, Japan is looking to develop a future fighter aircraft to a similar timescale to replace the F-2 aircraft.
The UK and Japan have also agreed on a ‘Memorandum of Cooperation’ which enables both nations to pursue joint technologies.
“Together, the UK and Japanese Defence Ministries will explore the feasibility of further sub-systems collaboration throughout 2022. In the UK, this work will be undertaken by the Team Tempest industry partners: BAE Systems, Leonardo UK, MBDA UK and Rolls-Royce.”
We reported that this was on the card recently.
Japan and Britain finalising F-X fighter engine development plans
UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said:
“Strengthening our partnerships in the Indo-Pacific is a strategic priority and this commitment with Japan, one of our closest security partners in Asia, is a clear example of that. Designing a brand-new combat air system with a fighter aircraft at its heart is a highly ambitious project so working with like-minded nations is vital. Building on the technological and industrial strengths of our two countries, we will be exploring a wide-ranging partnership across next-generation combat air technologies.”
UK Defence Procurement Minister Jeremy Quin said:
“As I have seen at first hand our partners in Japan have made enormous progress on technologies that can complement our own advanced skills and could help ensure both our Armed Forces remain at the forefront of military innovation. We look forward to the continued partnership with a formidable power and close ally.”
UK Director Future Combat Air, Richard Berthon, said:
“This initiative with Japan is a win-win opportunity to develop world-beating power technologies together. Investing and working together with Japan to demonstrate highly advanced engine systems will boost our national industries and design a cutting-edge military capability. We’re looking forward to getting started on this work and continuing our discussions on further collaboration.”
Alex Zino, Director of Business Development and Future Programmes at Rolls-Royce, said:
“Across Rolls-Royce we have a longstanding and valued relationship with our customers and industry partners in Japan. The industry teams in both UK and Japan bring complementary technologies that will drive cleaner, next generation power and propulsion for both nations future fighter requirements. The joint engine demonstrator programme is an exciting opportunity to bring together some of the best combat air capabilities in the world and will also enable the development of innovative and critical technologies that will be fundamental to the future of the Defence aerospace industry.”
Excellent news. Something to celebrate I think with all sorts of opportunities for Tempest and the FX programme and more beside. Also, a real boost for Global Britain and our future standing in the Pacific and South East Asia.
That’s good news for Tempest!
I believe the work will also look into the elements of the fuselage around the air intakes and jet engine nozzles, as these are critical for performance and stealth capabilities. That’s good because it’s likely to be complex, expensive and probably time consuming- getting an early start with other peoples’ money contributing is a win. That’s probably why BAE are mentioned. Means we could start seeing some proper airframe development that leads to some demonstrators in the next 5 years, or am I being too optimistic?!
I’d like some more info on the air-to-air missile, I know that it’s Meteor with a Japanese multi-mode seeker. But it’d be good to have some more detailes on those modes, and whether they allow for an anti-radiation role for Meteor as a air defence killer. I know that Spear 3 is supposed to do that, but sometimes Mach 4.5+ beats subsonic and stealthy when it comes to killing air defence radars!
RAF and MBDA talked about Meteor being used as an ARM at DSEi in 2019. Wasn’t clear if they were talking about the standard Meteor or JNAAM. It was being looked at as a mode of operation.
The seeker on JNAAM will be an AESA radar development from the Japanese AAM-4. The same radar seeker is used on the Japanese Type 12 ASHM.
Careful now, making even oblique reference to air-launched AShMs on a UK defence site can lead to all kinds of breakaway discussions and rants about offensive capabilities and suchlike…! Having said that, it’s an interesting potential capability for the FAA. I still don’t think it’s justifiable that our primary carrier strike platform doesn’t carry any guided surface strike weapon with a bigger warhead than Spear 3. I don’t care what they say about Wildcat and Sea Venom / Martlet, F-35B needs something with some punch that will cause significant damage to a large surface combatant. I understand that multiple hits from Spear 3 might result in a mission kill, but F-35B has limited internal carriage and you may not be in a position where you can launch all your ordnance against a single target. At least with a Sea Venom you’ve got enough explosive to kill a 500 T vessel with one warhead- that’s enough to ruin a Destroyer’s day with one shot too.
Thanks for the info, I thought I’d read about it somewhere but couldn’t remember where. Hopefully they’ll include a ‘receive and home’ capability too, just in case.
F35B will be able to carry 8 Spear 3’s internally.
I’m not sure there is much afloat that would be capable of offensive operations after being targeted by a large number of spear 3s. They are looking to be a very effective clever swarm missile.
I’m not sure how an anti-air missile could serve in the SEAD/DEAD role, unless you are talking about targetting AEW&C. I doubt there will be a Spear overlap. Has it even been announced we are getting JNAAM and if so on which planes?
While I recall Britain and Italy were paying for Meteor’s F-35 integration, I don’t remember Japan contributing even though it looks like they’ll benefit. Other people’s money works both ways.
Well, taking out AEW aircraft by homing in on the radar emissions rather than active seeking from the missile itself would certainly be a very useful capability to have.
But previous reports have noted that the same passive homing approach can be used to home in on ground-based air defence radars too, it shouldn’t matter (may even be a benefit) that the missile is diving down on the target, rather than engaging at a similar altitude. It’s not having to terrain map, of any of those kind of things that other ground attack munitions may have to do. That’s what Spear 3 would be for. This is more of a quick draw capability, potentially to counteract the techniques used during the Balkans conflicts where the radars would be turned on for only short periods of time and then moved. That’s when Mach 4.5 or more -especially in a dive- comes in handy!
Normally jammer pods are equipped on a weapons pylon for the duration or you have deployable chaff/decoys like BriteCloud but there has been some talk of developing an active jammer on a loitering missile body that is launched into enemy airspace.
SPEAR-EW will be able to do that role, as well as terminating kinetically at the emitter.
The F35 weapons integration program is a massive world wide collaboration. Yes we and Italy are paying for the Meteor integration and the tailfin modifications. Whilst Japan, Australia and Norway are paying for the NSM integration. The munitions software and recognition is available to all F35 users (not sure about the Israeli systems though!), so in theory countries F35s users could use another’s weapons. The main issue being the pilot would have had probably no training on the using the weapon and therefore not have an understanding of the realise parameters. Though I’m sure the flight simulator would have all the weapons available for use, so it may not actually be an issue.
Having something like Meteor available for SEAD/DEAD would be useful, but it would need to be modified to include location memory of the targeted emitter. The missile already has an inertial navigation system (INS), so it will no its location relative to the target. The problem is if/when the emitter switches off. The missile will have nothing to home in on, so what will it do? Missiles like the HARM store the location of the emitter and will fly to its last known location and destruct on impact with whatever it hits. If the emitter is mobile so the missile misses, it still complies with the unexploded ordinance treaty, by self destructing on impact. However if the emitter is static, there’s a good chance the missile will hit the target. This would be the same for a modified Meteor. It’s speed would put at an advantage especially when compare to HARM which can’t even reach Mach 2.
Time for the UK and Japan to build a joint 6th gen fighter as well. It will be the best in the world.
Excellent. Ajoint effort with Japan would seem to have non of the political implications of dealing with Europe, gives access to a bigger market than going it alone and reduces dependency on an increasingly unreiable US.
good news for both countries – tempest is building a set of very good partners and looks to be the only competition for the US in the western sphere.
More good news for Team Tempest, further ties with Japan makes a great deal of common sense, it’s a pity they haven’t fully come on board with the programme but every little bit helps!
…and that’s the big question in the future I think. From the wording it seems that cooperation on airframe is very possible. I think sensibly at this stage both countries will form their own solutions around what seems is going to be a relatively common engine plus immediate airframe related parts relevant to it. However while politically and at this point technologically it would not be wise to announce anything more combined I can’t, considering those shared core elements, but think that other important elements will not come into the equation too, it will simply be how much I suspect.
So while I doubt it will become a single project (certainly in name) which for Japan would probably be seen as endangering defence relations/commitments with the US, it will be interesting to see just how similar the end results will be and how much overlap occurs. I’m sure Britain will be willing to make compromises to keep down costs of Tempest and improve opportunities to find more sales and partners and this move just may push Tempest (or whatever combination comes from this cooperation) into prime spot to compete with the US and certainly catch the eye and confidence of Italy and Sweden and possibly new partners and contributors to the programme. For the first time I am confident that Tempest will actually happen ( and be top notch technologically) and the worst case scenario is now perhaps that it might become heavily Japanese orientated, rather than absorbed as a very minor partner in the French led affair which would be a national humiliation. For RR this is a massive development in competing with US military engines. Indeed probably vital.
Agreed, RR has been at the forefront of this for a while now.
https://www.pesmedia.com/tempest-fighter-jet-engine-rolls-royce-electrical-power-e2sg/
Early studies indicate that the Japanese F-X fighter has a projected cost of $170 million per unit. In addition, Japan knows that it cannot design and build this fighter without US expertise and has chosen Lockheed Martin to support MHI. Those seeing a convergence between Tempest and F-X should realize that that’s not going to happen.
Don’t be so sure …. There will likely be UK involvement in propulsion and EW systems, including missiles etc….
But yes, Uncle Sam will be in there as a primary partner, he won’t let Japan escape his vise like Defence clutches….
Lockheeds involvement was forced on Japan by Trump who said if they didnt involve US companies in the F-X they would withdraw forces stationed in Japan and stop selling them weapons. Japan prefers to work with the UK because they have twice been screwed working with the americans, the F16 clone that had a lot of blackbox systems and didnt significantly advance domestic Japanese aviation production and the US refusing to share the F-35 source code with them so they could perform their own weapons integration on the fighter.
For Japan the F1/2/3 are primarily industrial programs to advance their own domestic aviation sector.
Cost per Typhoon for the RAF has been £164m per aircraft..
I wonder if the UK could work with Japan on future ground systems too? Japan is an honorable country and a sound partner for the UK to co-develop military projects.
Interesting news. Hopefully it will be mutually beneficial but there is along way to go and a Starmer ‘woke’ Labour Government either in 2022 or 2023 will pull out of defence spending though not as much as Cameron-Clegg did. Mrs Thatcher erred by not selling British Leyland to the Japanese.
I am not making a party political point here but do you honestly believe, considering what every Labour Govt. since the war has done, that Starmer won’t attack defence spending. Bye bye the Commando’s, farewell carriers, ta ta Tempest and then they’ll get down to detail.
You are though. I must have been too subtle. However, Cameron-Clegg is why the navy in particular is desperately trying to catch up. ‘Don’t attack us or our friends before 2035, please!’ The best defence against Starmer forming the next government is Starmer thankfully.
Actually Barry. I’m not. The fact is that Blair/Brown disposed of more ships than Cameron/Clegg. At a guess I would say almost twice as many in a similar time frame. They also cancelled six of the twelve proposed Type 45 destroyers.
Oh, good. I thought you were making a political point about the ‘peace dividend’ folloowing the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1989. Why did Cameron-Clegg not reverse cuts that put Ark Royal and her Sea Harriers to the scrapyards? Oh, now I remember. Those were their cuts. ‘Austerity will be good for us’ – David Cameron. I just hope the present mob aren’t doing their best to hand over to Starmer and his sparkling team …
Hi Barry.
Sea Harrier force was cut long before by the Labour government. 800, 801. 899 NAS.
They then moved on to RAF Cottesemore and closed that as an RAF station, and disbanded Nos 3 and 4 Squadrons of Harrier GR9s.
People now link the loss of Harrier with the disastrous 2010 SDSR. There was but 1 squadron left, plus an OCU. An easy cut of such a small force.
Bloody Tory cuts!!
Many thanks. I was perhaps thinking more about Ark Royal. One source told me she had ‘at least ten years left in her’. I have no way of checking that buta brief television clip appeared to confirm that her crew thought the cut came sooner than necessary. The notorious ‘peace dividend’ took alot of people by surprise. I am re-watching ‘Yes Minister’ and I think Antony Jay understood Whitehall a hell of a lot better than the brass ever did. Regards.
I trust none of the parties concerning defence. I always comment when posters here only highlight Tory defence cuts, as the fat was actually cut off before.
Only army manpower escaped, due yo ongoing ops.
After 13 years of defence cuts under Labour the 2010 cuts were a dagger to the heart, treasonous.
I think your personal wishes and the facts are getting in each others way.
Thank you for the amateur psychology. I hope your understanding of the mix of party political ideology, H.M. Treasury ‘culture’ and the history of totally incompetent MoD ‘thinking’ imatures in the New Year. Regards.
Oh dear…I really didn’t want to upset you so badly. Thankyou for your concern. I do have a perfectly sensible view of all of those things. That’s why I stick to facts.
And it was a Labour Gov that launched the carrier project.
You really do go out of your way to find something to pick me up on Robert but you might like to point out to me where I said they weren’t.
You didn’t. But both parties are as bad as each other when it comes to defence. I still believe the Conservatives have more pro defence MP’s in there ranks though. 👍
Agreed. TSR 2 was actually delayed by the Duncan Sandys 1957 white paper that ‘ended’ manned aircraft! The mess isn’t just party politics it’s endemic to our post war thinking across the board.
I would not have built them. Wrong way to go in my opinion. Regards.
Geoff R’s persistent lambasting of Labour on defence does not really stand up.
When Blair came to office in 1997, we were spending 2.3% of GDP on defence. When Labour was defeated in 2010, we were still spending 2.3%/2.4% of GDP on defence. Given that the 2007 financial crash impacted heavily on all Government spending, that is actually quite a commendable record, probably the best of any post-war British administration.
Hard decisions had to be made by Labour, as we had a large quantity of older equipment to replace and could not, on 2.3,% of GDP, afford to do so or maintain force levels.
The idea, largely fostered by Conservatives!, that Labour is antipathetic to defence is not really borne out – most of the traditional defence industries were based in Labour-held areas, from which a large proportion of service recruits were drawn, so traditional Labour has always had a close affinity with defence.
Obviously not the militant Corbynite minority, but both parties have militant minority wings that try to be the tail wagging the dog.
Now contrast the Conservative record on defence. The percentage of GDP spent on defence, going by the SIPRI tables, which are a bit more objective than the NATO ones, is
2010 – 2.4
2011 – 2.3
2012 – 2.2
2013 – 2.1
2014 – 2.0
2015 – 1.9
2016 – 1.8
2017 – 1.8
I can’t see their figures since then, but the direction of travel is pretty clear. I doubt that, leaving out Osborne’s tricks with the defence budget, we are even spending 2%.on defence today, despite Boris’ wuffle about ‘Global Britain’ .
Lets be very honest with ourselves here its not a Labour or conservative thing, it’s a British government thing. The military have been a very easy target when governments need to control spending as it has no immediate impact on people’s lives. The military are insurance for things we hope will not happen to us at that time…so politicians who are only people (and human factors mean we always think the awful will not happen to us) gamble they will get away with it. Unfortunately this ignores the evidence and reality that awful always happens and the less you prepare for it the more likely it is to happen or the worse the outcome.
Even the Iron Lady was planning to gut the navy until the falklands gave the nation a stark lesson in being able to defend what is yours and your people.
We are an island nation it’s always been very easy for us to slip into a…rest of the world will not reach us mindset. The problem for us is that it has some limited truth to it and appeal to many people.
Problem is that the government thinks they are fully insured, but we are vastly under insured.
Unfortunately very true. Hopefully the path that China and Russia are taking will make it so real and happening now that it will trigger a response that fills some holes in the right timeframe, but I fear the awareness is to late, as it aways is with theses things, the bucket of sand has more power than we ever give it credit for.
But on a positive note. We still spend 40+ Billion a year to fund a tier 1 military that can deploy globally. Somthing that very very few countries possess. And we still have a very large and capable defence industrial base. Again, very few countries can build 65k tonne aircraft carriers, and nuclear submarines of the finest quality. Our reach and influence around the world goes much further than how many Frigates the RN has, or how many tank regiments we have. As CSG21 has proven, and the evacuation of Kabul, and the many other vital deployments around the world during a pandemic. We have much to be positive about. 🇬🇧 Merry Christmas everyone 👍
Yes, that was my point. I see the dead hand of the Treasury and Foreign Office at work. ‘Yes Minister’ was really more of a documentary was it not? Dithering politicians trying to hang on to their jobs and scheming Civil Servants artfully scuppering this or that project to preserve their departments. Regards.
Hi Barry yes for satire to be funny it needs to have a level of truth to it.
Considering we are going to be operating a lot more in the Pacific due to China and its aggressive behaviour, it makes sense to do build bridges with Asia’s second largest navy and the U.S biggest ally in the region. The Japanese have some very good military equipment and only good things can come from this. Anything that makes China even slightly uneasy is a good thing in my book.
It is potentially good news, but differences between the requirements of the Japanese Air force and those of the Tempest partners may soon diverge.
Japan wants a heavier, long range air superiority fighter that can engage and defeat Chinese aircraft far from Jaoan’s shores. They are taking about an F15/F-22 style aircraft, so a heavy, powerful engine a league ahead of the Typhoon’s.
That is what the RAF needs too, a long range interceptor that can out-match Russian aircraft heading our way from the Kola peninsula or western Russia. But it is unlikely we will get that.
As with Typhoon, the original plan was for a long range interceptor but it got watered down. Partly by the Germans, who were looking for a lighter, cheaper tac air aircraft, partly by our politicians, who turned Typhoon’s secondary (and limited) ground attack capability into an excuse for not ordering a replacement for Tornado.
I fear that Tempest will go down the same road, trying to be all things to all men and ending up just another jack of all trades.
If so, there will be a sharp difference between the engine Japan requires and the more limited, less expensive one that will do for a tac air Tempest.
We should really be ordering F-35As for the attack role, as everybody else is, leaving Tempest as a dedicated air defence fighter, albeit with a secondary ground attack capability.
This great news for Britain, to be part of the future, our scientist and engineers, I hope will show, the rest of the world, that this country,is worth investing into,to create work for us.