Tempest isn’t a bomb truck – except when it is

As an enthusiastic defence aviation commentator with a particular eye on the Asia Pacific region, I remember the excitement in defence media circles and forums in the last week of 2010 when the first grainy images started to appear of the new soon-to-be-designated CAC J-20 Mighty Dragon fighter (NATO designation Fagin) performing taxi tests at the CADI airfield in Chengdu.

The first black and white images, while difficult to make out, appeared to show a large, slender, and long airframe that, if you squinted your eyes just right, looked a bit like the Grumman F-111 at certain angles.

The conclusion was rapidly drawn by not only defence media circles and the aviation enthusiast community but also some very respected defence aviation journalists that this aircraft was a long-range bomb truck.

A Chinese Digression

A large, not overly manoeuvrable, long-range, marginally stealthy fighter. A bomb truck designed to haul a bomb payload out over the South China Sea and not intended to get into a real fight against types like the F-22.

As we slipped into 2011 and the first flight of the J-20 occurred, leading to better pictures getting out, aspects of this analysis started to fall apart. While the new fighter was certainly large and no doubt long-ranged, it was not a simple bomb truck. What we began to see was a fighter with a stealthy, not-so-slender blended fuselage design with a delta canard configuration. This would be a fighter designed to have a highly pointable nose and impressive instantaneous turn rate while also being able to carry a large payload of weaponry internally with lots of fuel to bring it a long way.

Over the years, firstly in testing and then into low-rate initial production, as more footage was released, it showed a highly agile jet. Eventually, personnel at CAC who designed the plane were interviewed and confirmed the J-20 was designed to be a highly manoeuvrable but agile air superiority fighter, not a simple bomb truck. Its large size was a function of its requirements, the need for long-range but also the ability to carry many potentially large missiles internally, and the electrical power generation needed for its numerous systems.

As an aside to this story, the main thing hindering the J-20 from reaching its full potential is the lack of a 5th generation engine, with the type forced to rely on the 4th Gen Saturn AL31 or the domestically produced Shenyang WS10, the latter in effect a reverse-engineered General Electric GE F101 with features of the derivative GE F110. The 5th Gen Shenyang WS-15 is still being tested on the J-20 and is barely in low-rate production. When available in numbers, it should give the J-20 full supercruise capability, higher electrical power generation, greater reliability, and range.

It should also be noted that the USAF/USN take the J-20 very seriously, using the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet as the preferred aggressor type to simulate the rather crude Russian SU-57 Felon. The F-35 Lightning is used to act as the aggressor simulator for the J-20. Nevertheless, over the years, the idea has persisted amongst many in defence circles, including respected journalists, who have stuck to the narrative that the CAC J-20 is a modern-day F-111 knockoff, a not particularly manoeuvrable but long-ranged bomb truck. The reality was not matching perception, but people in our defence aviation circles were reluctant to change their initial analysis based upon a few grainy pictures.

Tempest Revealed

So why this long digression about the J-20 in an article about GCAP/Tempest? At last month’s Farnborough airshow, the GCAP partners revealed a model of the latest configuration of the Tempest, this one more representative of the final configuration. The most noticeable feature was not only its sheer size, nearly 65ft long with a 54ft wingspan, but also its large classic delta wing configuration, a wing with almost the same area as an A320. This will be a big fighter jet, and inevitably, the comparisons to the F-111 and the label bomb truck started to make the rounds on social media and the defense press.

The comparison was almost inevitable, and certainly, the general view of the commentariat has been towards Tempest as a heavyweight, long-range carrier of munitions. The more astute will also note the heavy influence of Japan and their specific requirements for range and the ability to carry a couple of heavy long-range anti-ship missiles. This is all true, but when we are talking about 6th generation fighters, there is much more to consider.

What is a Generation?

To a degree, what defines any generation of fighter aircraft is subjective, varies from nation to nation, and is often subject to the whim of a marketing team. It is too big a subject to fully investigate here, especially when it has been covered in depth already and is a quick Google search away for those wishing to travel down the rabbit hole. If you want to talk in simple terms, an aircraft like the F-16, a mature multi-role type but lacking in stealth, is widely accepted as 4th Generation. The Eurocanards like Typhoon and Rafale, with their high performance combined with sensor integration, are 4+ Generation. The F-22, with its stealth, is 5th Generation.

The F-22 is interesting in that it is effectively a jet built based on the threat assessments of the 1980s, developed in the 1990s, and pushed into service in the 2000s. Development-wise, it is contemporary to the Eurocanards. So, while it gets stealth, it also gains thrust vectoring to give it a very pointable nose, a useful feature against the then-new Soviet wunder-fighters the Mig-29 and SU-27. Both those new Soviet fighters had high agility and a high off-bore-sight short-range IR missile, the R73, combined with a helmet-mounted sight. Close in, they were lethal opponents.

With the fall of the Soviet Union, both types were trialled by Western pilots, and the information gleaned fed back into the further development of more advanced missiles and systems to counter the threat. HMD, IR missiles like AIM-9X and ASRAAM, plus a slew of advanced countermeasures, were integrated into Western fighters. Curiously, to this day, the F-22 still lacks a helmet-mounted sight, but it is still regarded as the apex predator of the skies.

You will note I have only mentioned weaponry and systems used for fighting within visual range, which ignores a simple truth: for all the romance of the Knights of the Air, the turning dogfight outside of the film Top Gun Maverick is not how we do it now. The most successful Western air-to-air weapon of the last three decades has been the AIM-120 AMRAAM, a BVR weapon. Ideally, the enemy our fighters engage in combat will never know what caused their jet to rapidly disintegrate around them.

F-35: A Step to 6th Generation

In many ways, FCAS, the program that became Tempest and GCAP, is overshadowed by the F-35. The F-35 is the poster child for a modern 5th-generation fighter and is heavily marketed as such. The F-35 will form the backbone of Western air forces for decades to come. For all its cost and growing pains, it is a formidable aircraft that takes the very concept of 5th Gen and takes it to the next level.

It is stealthy, multi-role, but also information-rich, able to take in a vast amount of data and present it to the pilot or command and control. It will see the entire battlespace and perform roles never previously considered for fighter jets. It is in those abilities that we see the basis of what 6th Generation will be.

When it comes to air combat, the F-35 will favour BVR missiles like AMRAAM and, hopefully, soon, Meteor once Block 4 development gets unstuck. For all the trouble that the F-35 has experienced over its troubled development, those who operate it know they are getting something beyond a simple dogfighter. Tempest will need to be a step beyond F-35 to be truly 6th Gen.

NGAD and GCAP: The Assassins

To go back to the reveal of GCAP/Tempest, my first personal observation of the overall configuration was to note that the team designing it was going down the same line of thinking as those developing the 6th Generation USAF fighter, the NGAD. Like Tempest, NGAD will be, according to what limited information has been revealed, both large and fast.

This has been the clear direction of travel when it comes to 6th-gen development for the USAF. It will probably utilize variable cycle engines like Tempest, allowing significant power generation and performance. It will have high situational awareness and utilize AI to analyze the battlespace, just like Tempest. It will also work with drones to act as sacrificial wingmen, again, just like Tempest.

It will have large weapon bays able to carry large munitions. We got a taste of what kind of munitions recently when the USN tested an air-launched variant of the SM-6 Standard missile, the AIM-174. Launched at high altitude, the AIM-174 is a hypersonic weapon skipping off the upper atmosphere to dive down at an unsuspecting target at over Mach 2. Using off-platform sensors, a 6th Gen fighter using a hypersonic missile can kill an enemy fighter with it never knowing what killed it. Put simply, there will be no turning dogfight. Tempest and NGAD will be assassins, not brawlers!

Coming back to Tempest, it will still be able to perform traditional roles, from QRA to the dropping of bombs, not only well but better than our current types like Typhoon. At altitude, the delta wing has some advantages when it comes to manoeuvrability, and it will be able to carry lots of fuel. In essence, a 6th Gen fighter will be able to see all and potentially engage all potential threats. Types like the SU-57 or J-20 will simply not be in the same class when facing 6th Gen. The ability to participate in all aspects of the battlespace, from ground support to coordination of multiple platforms from the ground, sea, and air, will define a fighter as a true 6th Gen. Potentially, a Tempest could act as a component in an engagement against a ballistic missile alongside the future Type-83 destroyer.

So, while yes, the Tempest will drop bombs like an F-111, it will be so much more. Just as with the J-20, initial appearances do not tell the whole story when it comes to modern fighter development. That being said, when the F-111 was first developed, it was intended to be a fighter and bomber, a type that bridged all aspects of air combat, so maybe it was the first true 6th-generation fighter.

Many Challenges Still to Come

Like AUKUS, GCAP/Tempest is a vital defence programme that, if allowed to be cancelled, would not only hobble the UK defence industry but also almost certainly destroy vital defence relationships with multiple countries.

So far, despite the usual pre-defence review worrying leaks and tabloid speculation, the general assumption is both programs are safe. The greater concern is a salami slicing of capabilities from Tempest, a diluting of what a 6th Gen fighter is truly meant to be, ironically the same fate that befell the F-111. Diluted in capability rather than killed off like another much-discussed aircraft, the TSR2. Time will tell.

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