(by Andrea Pinto) Europe today must face a thorny problem that could, if solved, be the beginning of a future ambitious collaboration in the world of defense. Let's talk about the two future fighter aircraft: the Tempest British and the Franco-German FACS, recently Spain has also entered the program.
"Also Italy should "board" the Tempest European hunting project ".
This is the hope of Alessandro Profumo, managing director of Leonardo, during a briefing held today with the press in Rome. "Time passes", Profumo underlined, recalling how the Italian company is already involved in the Tempest. Profumo's appeal is that Italy "Get on board the project as a country".
But Leonardo's Ad messages start from afar. Last July at the Farnborough Air Show, when the British government presented the program it stated: "I am happy that Leonardo can continue to play a crucial role in the Tempest project for the development of British potential in post Typhoon air combat. Leonardo aspires to be at the heart of defense programs in Europe and looks at this initiative in the UK, born with the prospect of further future international collaborations in mind, as a program that could include Italy as it goes on".
But even a few months ago on Defense News Profumo launched other appeals to the Italian government: "I hope the two programs (FACS and TEMPEST) can come together. The United States will not develop planes after the F-35, and Europe, therefore, should develop, in full autonomy, a sixth-generation fighter". Although Leonardo is already working on Tempest, the commitment of the Italian government to support the program, putting the Italian involvement at risk, said Profumo. "Italy has not yet decided whether to join. I hope you decide soon enough because when it comes to participation in development, the sooner you decide and the more important is the involvement and sharing of the work you get. It is one thing to work on the recipe, another to be able to provide the ingredients".
Unfortunately in Italy there is still talk of the F-35 program which over the years has become a flag of the various political campaigns. The current government has even delayed a payment for the first batch of 389 million euros and is discussing whether to expand the next deliveries of the fifth generation aircraft. Politics, unwittingly, plays on a weapon system that guarantees the full operation of an armed force in carrying out its institutional tasks, the defense of national airspace. Main task ofAir Force.
Therefore, Italy should already be a first-level partner in the Tempest program because it will have to replace the Typhoons that are approaching the end of the normal operational life cycle.
Another element that should prompt our country to enter, as soon as possible in the program, is that the Italian companies involved in the Tempest Team are already well represented in England by Leonardo e MBDA, European missile company held at 25% by Leonardo, Bae Systems and Airbus with the 37,5 per cent each.
Tempest program
The Tempest is a British program, financed with Defense funds for the development of new technologies entrusted to a team of companies in which Leonardo plays an important role, having 7 factories in the United Kingdom. Those in Edinburgh and Luton, with around 7 thousand employees, will be the most involved in the Tempest program. Bae Systems will deal with the development of the airframe and the aircraft as such, #Rolls Royce of the motorization and #MBDA of embarked armaments (missiles but also laser) and Leonardo will have an exclusive role in the field of on-board electronic systems.
The first flight of the twin-engine fighter is planned in the 2025 to become operational in the 2035 in the piloted version but widely supported by artificial intelligence systems while a remote-controlled version is potentially foreseen.
Crosetto and FACS
The president of 'AIAD (Italian Association of Defense Industry) Guido Crosetto was interviewed by Defense News last February on the Franco-German fighter project FACS - Future Air Combat System. According to Crosetto, the plans of France and Germany for the new fighter program they are an affront to Italy and will weaken the European Union. Recently, Spain has also joined the Franco-German program. According to Crosetto, a consequence of this new consortium would be, for Italy, to think of a closer approach to the United Kingdom, despite its forthcoming exit from the EU.
The new Franco-German momentum makes it clear that the two countries will try to work together on common programs to draw more funding from the new European defense fund; this could isolate Italy beyond measure.
Crosetto therefore said that the Italian government is now obliged to invest with more conviction in the Italian defense industry to make it more competitive and be able to aspire to have more funding from the European Defense Fund: "The industry now needs the government to invest more".
In a world that runs fast outside Italy's borders, we cannot miss opportunities for industrial development and growth opportunities. A growth repeatedly hoped for and aired in the election campaign by the government in office. With the recent ballots he hopes that the political "brawl" will end and that work will be done seriously on the country system, also because the only way to avoid infringement procedures is to increase GDP which can only be done with credible and long-term investments, as is a program in the aerospace sector.