The United Kingdom’s programme to develop autonomous fighter jets will be named Storm Fighter, Defence Minister Luke Pollard has announced, with the aircraft intended to fly alongside the RAF’s Typhoons, F-35s and future Tempest jets as what he described as both “guardian angel and an attack dog.”
Speaking on the second day of the Global Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference in London, the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry said the Collaborative Combat Aircraft programme, given the go-ahead in the recent Defence Investment Plan, will develop autonomous jets in the UK to provide new levels of lethality and survivability for crewed aircraft. “Today, I’m delighted to reveal that our new autonomous CCA programme will be named Storm Fighter. Storm Fighter will make the RAF Europe’s first sixth generation Air Force,” he told delegates, as quoted in the transcript of the speech.
The programme builds on Storm Shroud, the uncrewed electronic warfare system unveiled last year that pairs autonomous aircraft with Typhoons to blind enemy radars, and sits alongside £5 billion the Government is investing in drones and other advanced uncrewed systems, a figure Pollard noted has risen from the £4 billion previously announced. The Minister said the aim is to maximise British air power “in the eye of the storm of future combat, that will be swarming with drones, sixth generation fighter jets and ever-evolving EW capabilities,” and pointed to Project Vanquish, a trial of a jet-powered drone to serve alongside the F-35B force, as an example of the innovation ecosystem the investment is intended to nourish.
The naming caps a speech in which Pollard set out the scale of the air and space settlement in the £298 billion Defence Investment Plan, which allocates £31 billion to the two domains over the next four years. Within that, £8.6 billion funds the design and testing phase of the Global Combat Air Programme, following the £4.6 billion contract awarded earlier this month to the Reading-based Edgewing consortium of BAE Systems, Leonardo and Japan’s aircraft industry partners, while £1.1 billion will upgrade and sustain the Typhoon force well into the 2040s, more than £4.5 billion goes into the A400M, Voyager and C-17 transport fleets, and more than £2 billion lays the ground for the first F-35As that will return the RAF to NATO’s tactical nuclear mission, providing what Pollard called “a long overdue additional rung on our escalation ladder.”
A further £360 million will fully recapitalise the jet training system, which the Minister said will ultimately deliver new jets for the Red Arrows. Ending, Pollard argued that the plan amounts to a blueprint for “a hybrid digitally integrated and AI-enabled air force” built around three combat air platforms in F-35, Typhoon and Tempest, with the RAF strengthened by £27.8 billion of investment over the next four years and, in his closing words to the conference, a future that is “bright” and “Air Force blue.”
Storm Fighter? being run by the Met Office?❄️
Extremely dodgy financial numbers on display here.
Makes sense since StormBreaker was already taken.
So is Stormfighter it’s a copyrighted Sea Anchor design for Yachts !
And, a brand name for a roofing tile too.
Additional rung on OUR escalation ladder. Nope it’s entirely under US control.
Hitler liked to include “sturm” when naming weapons or formations. Now we’ve got Pollard doing the same.
He really comes across as an idiot.The more buzzwords he uses, the more sceptical I become.
So how is a programme we know even little about totally under the control of the US. Anything intelligent to add to back that up? I can only assume you are talking about the tactical nuclear capability of the F-35, if so best to talk about that on the appropriate thread and not on one devoted to a drone.
So when are we breaking wind on this Storm ?
“I fart In your general direction”.
Love to see this all come off.
But wasn’t an RAF ACM talking a few years ago of “Drone swarms” by 2025? Where are they? We have 216 Sqn with a handful of Stormshroud which require the RAF Regiment, RAuxAF, and reservists to operate.
And this CCA, it of course will need AAM and ASM, do we have enough?
Where will it be based? Where are the RAF personnel to operate it and maintain it? The remaining RAF Stations are busy, and full. So money needed to reopen or expand other stations?
I first read of this on Mark Urbans X feed, £20 million per aircraft was quoted.
Elsewhere, £360 million to recapitalise the jet training system! What with, Jet Provosts, for that money? Or maybe they will buy 10 jets and 4 FTS and the Red Arrows share them?
Meanwhile, the cuts continue unabated to enable the future jam tomorrow, will it ever arrive before the next review changes things?
Looking forward to it all, but the little details that Pollard omits in his Grandstanding need answering.
Herti, Mantis, Taranis, Mosquito, was there one called LANCA? Nothing progressed, why will this be any different with only £300 million of funding?
I’d read £20 million each, so that buys 25 at half a billion.
Just about to add, LANCA or Mosquito, or Vanquish was scrapped just a couple of years ago, as the MOD stated that cheaper OTS alternatives were available. Which weren’t bought, because they didn’t exist. And now the merry go round begins again, more trials, decisions awaiting information, procurement envelopes, greater lethality etc.
And minimal numbers.
And the MIC rubbing their hands….
And if MIC doesn’t design and make them. Somebody else will.
👍Its almost like working for Musk. Though I suppose he has occasionally got something off the ground and even have it blow up.
The name very much seems to indicate that our first CCA will be an electronic attack platform. Give the tight deadlines and budget this also make sense. We already have storm shrouds deployed on AR3. It very much sounds like they plan to rapidly deploy a similar capability into a jet powered drone. This all makes sense as a first step.
The a more advanced CCA can follow later using Tempest derived technology and or working with others like Germany.
A longer range jet powered electronic attack drone will be much more useful than something that can hall around a few AMRAAMS for the time being.