By Pierre Tran
Paris – The closed communications system of the F-35 posed problems for flying cooperative combat missions with the planned European Future Combat Air System (FCAS), Eric Trappier, executive chairman of Dassault Aviation, told French senators May 24.
“Collaborative combat” consisted of close links between fighter jets, effectively allowing the computer of one fighter to fire weapons of another fighter flying in a “raid,” he told the Senate defense and foreign affairs committee. That cooperative link extended to other capabilities on the fighters.
“Today, this can only be done between Rafales, in a Rafale patrol,” he said. “If you have an F-16 or F-35, that cannot be done. And I do not think it will be done.”
There is “interoperability” with the F-16 and F-35 fighters, he said, with exchange of data through the U.S.-designed Link 16, available to Nato forces. French fighters carry Link 16, giving them data link with an F-16.
“It is more difficult with the F-35 as the Americans, in an amazing feat, built an American, non-Nato standard,” he said. “It is closed.”
If allied nations wanted interoperability with an F-35, he said, it was simple – just buy an F-35, adding that remark might be something of a caricature, but it was just barely so.
Dassault sees the F-35 as a direct rival in export sales of the Rafale, a major source of revenue for the family-controlled company, which is prime contractor on the fighter and also lead industrial partner on the New Generation Fighter (NGF) at the heart of FCAS.
The plan is for the planned new fighter to replace eventually the Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon some time after 2040. France, Germany, and Spain are the backers of FCAS.
It remained to be seen how the F-35 will fly with the F-22, and how the British will fly the Eurofighter Typhoon with the F-35, Trappier said, pointing up the need for other aircraft and satellites to act as communication nodes for the fighters.
A powerful data exchange in “microseconds” of collaborative combat has begun with development work on the Rafale F-4 version, he said, adding that network capability will be extended on the planned F-5 model of the fighter jet.
How To Plug Into F-35
“For FCAS, the ambition is for European aircraft to work together,” he said, but the problem arose when most fighters flown by European forces were U.S.-built.
“It’s a real subject,” he said.
“A solution has to be found,” said Jean-Pierre Maulny, deputy director of Institut des Relations Internationales et Stratégiques, a think tank.
The F-35 poses a problem, but the story is not over, he said.
Dassault is working with Dassault Systèmes on a “sovereign cloud,” Trappier said as an aside, and called on European nations to work on a common cloud computing to boost security, rather than rely on Google or Microsoft.
A high level of Anglo-French air combat cooperation was evoked by a French air force officer, major general Jean-Luc Moritz, at the future combat air and space conference held by the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, website Breaking Defense reported May 23.
“My dream is tomorrow Tempest could take control of an NGWS asset,” the report said. Moritz was referring to the British-designed future fighter and the Next Generation Weapon System at the heart of the FCAS. The officer heads the French air force team working on the European FCAS project.
NGWS comprises a Next Generation Fighter (NGF), remote carrier drones, and combat cloud, an advanced communications network linking up allied aircraft.
That wish for allied air cooperation included the planned U.S. Next Generation Air Dominance fighter being capable of taking control of “the fighter the U.K. will buy,” and the capability for Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, and Tempest to fly together, the report said.
Moritz said, “To reach this dream we need everything on the table from industry,” the report said.
A large digital communications network is needed on FCAS as the Link 16 system is already saturated, a French air force officer has said.
That networked approach posed security problems, which needed to be addressed, Trappier said, as the more the fighters were connected, the more vulnerable they became.
Onboard mission computers needed to be “totally independent” from other computers on the fighter, to avoid cyber attack, he said. The sooner standards were specified, the better it would be.
Cool On Belgium as FCAS Partner
The Dassault chief executive also made clear his resistance to reports of Belgium looking to join the three European partner nations on FCAS.
“It is complicated bringing people on board FCAS,” he said. “I have heard talk of the Belgians.”
That reluctance stemmed from Belgium ordering the F-35, along with Germany, which saw a need to order a batch of the Lightning II fighter, to carry the U.S.-built nuclear bombs for Nato forces.
Adding partner nations risked slowing the FCAS project with more negotiations, Trappier said, and the present phase 1B was already hard to manage.
There will be a new contract for phase 2, with the same share of work, he said. Bringing Belgium in would mean a new work share plan, to which he objected.
“I hear that we could give work to Belgian companies right now,” he said. “No. If that is imposed on me, I will fight back.”
It was clear the F-35 was the uninvited guest to the FCAS industrial partnership, with Trappier pointing up the prospective loss of jobs in French factories and design offices, with work going “to people who have chosen the F-35.
“I do not see why I should give work to the Belgians today,” he said.
That view appears to clash with those of the French armed forces minister, Sébastien Lecornu, who has told parliamentarians that bringing in partners would be a “good way to manage taxpayers’ money,” and would be of industrial and military interest, the Public Senat website reported.
There are estimates the FCAS program could hit some €100 billion ($107 billion), shared by the three partner nations. The budget for phase 1B and phase 2 is a total of some €8 billion.
The aim was to fly an FCAS technology demonstrator, which will require negotiating a phase 2 contract, Trappier said, adding that it looked “optimistic” to say the fighter would enter service in 2040.
The plan is for a fighter demonstrator to fly around 2028/29 – already a couple of years late – along with a loyal wingman remote carrier drone and a simpler, lower cost drone, with FCAS entry into service in 2040.
The U.K. expects to fly the Tempest fighter in 2035, backed by partner nations Japan and Italy in the global combat air program.
Rafale outlook
The government has slashed orders for the Rafale to 137 units from 185 by 2030, “which is no small matter,” the chairman of the senate defense committee, Christian Cambon, said in his opening remarks.
He was referring to the draft 2024-2030 military budget law, which is going through debate in the lower house National Assembly. The Senate will debate the bill next month, with the government hoping for adoption in July, in time for the Bastille day national holiday.
The defense ministry has said the Rafale will be flying at least 30 years with the FCAS new generation fighter, the Dassault CEO said, pointing up the need to update the former.
The government has added an amendment to the seven year military budget bill, with the Rafale F5 flying with a combat drone based on the Neuron demonstrator for an unmanned aerial combat vehicle (UCAV), said senator Yannick Vaugrenard, Public Senat reported.
That future Rafale F5 version might fly with remote carrier drones or a Neuron type UCAV, Trappier said, and it was up to the government to give more details. The government has pushed back the F5 version to 2035, slightly later than the 2032 previously expected, he said.
Deliveries of the Rafale are due to resume for the French air force, with 13 units to be shipped this year, 13 in 2024, 12 in 2025, and one in 2026, he said, adding that the government has long delayed these deliveries.
Dassault expected a fresh order for 42 Rafales this year, of which 30 were a long-awaited domestic order, boosted by 12 to replace those flown by the French air force and sold second-hand to Croatia. Export prospects for the fighter lay in India – which required patience – Trappier said, and South America. Indonesia was expected to place further orders in the next few months, as part of a deal for 42 units. Jakarta has already ordered a first batch of six Rafales.
Dassault led the Neuron demonstrator project, with France working in partnership with Italy, Greece, Spain, Switzerland.
Photo Credit: https://www.dassault-aviation.com/en/