UK’s Project Tempest Fighter Jet to Include 3D Printing

July 29, 2024 by Joris Peels 3D Printing Aerospace 3D Printing Europe Military 3D Printing

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Fifth Generation fighter aircraft are the latest and most advanced warplanes available today. The US’s F-22 and F-35 are Fifth Generation jets, as is China’s Chengdu J-20. Costing billions to produce, these planes are completely cutting edge. The F-35 program cost $183 billion more than initially estimated. A few countries are working on Sixth Generation jets to replace them. Realistically, only the US and China will be able to make Sixth Generation jets. For other countries that wish to be more independent, the only option is to work together.

Enter Tempest, originally a UK project led by BAE and also called the Global Combat Air Programme. For now, the partner nations include the UK, Italy, Japan, and, as an observer, Sweden. Dassault Aviation, Airbus, and integrator Indra Sistemas are working on a rival French, German, and Spanish project called the Future Air Combat System. Each big US contractor has its own central ideas, and the Chinese forge ahead. The Tempest program has Rolls Royce, Leonardo, and missile firm MBDA on board as well. Previously, BAE was a part of the Eurofighter Typhoon project, which ultimately included Airbus, Leonardo, Rolls Royce, MBDA, and the countries of Germany, Spain, Italy, and the UK to make that, now aging, fighter. It would probably be useful for all the Europeans to get together, but perhaps BAE’s work on the Eurofighter and its 10% share of the F-35 project is giving it thoughts of going it alone.

At the same time, the UK is politically isolated and financially in bad shape after some poor choices. It does not seem to possess the finances, goodwill, or elan to really push the Tempest project through as a national priority or to get more countries to sign up for it. Perhaps it is waiting for its project to be credible enough to get a larger share of one single European advanced fighter project. Alternatively, it could find the political will to push this through despite the odds. Or a Labour government could decide to cancel this pork-laden flying white elephant and use the money to ensure that the UK’s National Health System doesn’t collapse.

The Tempest is now supposed to work manned or unmanned, as part of a swarm and alone, fire lasers, and have conventional weapons, use hypersonic missiles, and fly with AI while the pilot uses an AR helmet. It’s a veritable clown car of fanciful futurology that has so far cost £2 billion. A £2 billion rendering. It’s part airplane, part mood board. It’s like someone cut out the helmet for the F-35, a headline on AI, some blurb on hypersonics, and a picture of a drone and copy-pasted them all together. The current US air-launched hypersonics project was just canceled. So, who will produce those missiles now? Furthermore, the aircraft launching the US hypersonics was a B-52. And that didn’t work. Now you’ll make it work using an aircraft that is much smaller? I heard that they called this project the Tempest because they hope it will blow over.

Tempest is a good example of what happens when you don’t make good choices. Rather than continuing to develop the Typhoon or relying on the F-35 with extension programs while making a truly sixth-generation drone with energy weapons, they’re going to make the Bradley Fighting Vehicle for the sky.

Now, in time for a review of military spending and in a blatant attempt to influence the British media, some articles have been coming out that are nearly dripping with tallyho Spitfire-inspired nonsense to try to breathe some political life into a rendering.

Paul Wilde, Head of Tempest at BAE Systems, said, “The flying technology demonstrator is a vital initiative for developing national skills and advanced technology, ensuring the UK remains a world leader in the design, production, test and certification of combat aircraft. Partnering with around 100 UK suppliers, including our Team Tempest partners, we’re combining engineering expertise with innovative methods to enhance and refresh crucial industrial skills which is so important as we get ready to deliver the Tempest programme. The demonstrator is a ground-breaking initiative which will showcase the best of British engineering, supporting apprentices and graduates who learn from our best engineers, keeping the UK at the forefront of defence and aerospace.”

The team also said that they’ve done over 215 hours of simulation flights, on paper presumably, while Air Commodore Martin Lowe, Future Combat Air Systems Programme Director for the UK Ministry of Defence, stated, “The demonstrator is helping us understand more about the advanced technology that is required to deliver a sixth-generation fighter jet. The progress we have made together – MOD and industry – in such a short space of time has been remarkable. A large part of this is down to a new generation of engineering specialists who are using innovative manufacturing solutions to deliver this demonstrator aircraft.”

BAE Systems also stated that they are using Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) on the plane, which is a commendable step for their 3D printed parts and their properties. The company also said that it wants to make structural parts on the plane cost-effectively, which will be harder. That totally explains the HIP, though. BAE itself has so far kept mostly to polymer FDM prototypes. Meanwhile, there are already over 800 3D-printed components flying on the F-35. BAE has partnered with Renishaw to develop more metal printing expertise. UK-based GKN is also working on DED, which could be a very cost-effective path to structural components as well. At this point, it’s very hard for me to take this seriously. We mustn’t forget that Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest” is a play within a play, and a lot of this project seems similarly to be a performance. Thought is free, though, and these partners may very well surprise us in the years to come.